Species and Site Contributions to Odonata adult assemblage uniqueness in Brazilian Amazon streams

Abstract

Studies that assess the contribution of sites (LCBD) and species (SCBD) to total beta diversity (BDtotal) along environmental/spatial gradients are of fundamental importance for biodiversity knowledge, species conservation and for environmental restoration. We analyzed which spatial, environmental and environmental heterogeneity (LCEH) predictors were responsible for uniqueness species composition (LCBD). We analyzed the relationship of LCBD with species richness and dominance, and SCBD with abundance and occupancy. Habitat integrity (HII) can act as an environmental filter in the selection of species sensitive or tolerant to environmental changes and can reflect in the LCBD. We verified the differences in the compositional uniqueness (LCBD) of Anisoptera and Zygoptera along the habitat integrity gradient (HII). We expect that streams with greater habitat integrity (HII) will show greater compositional uniqueness (LCBD) in relation to Zygoptera species, because Zygoptera species are exclusive to streams with high HII values. In our results LCBD is mainly determined by the distance between sites, HII and depth stream. The streams with the highest LCBD had the lowest species richness and the highest dominance. Species with highest SCBD had the highest number of individuals and occupancy. Our results indicate that Odonata uniqueness depends on the distance and specific environmental conditions. The high compositional uniqueness (LCBD) of Odonata adults is related to priority sites for environmental restoration.