Patterns of Tadpole β Diversity in Temperate Montane Streams

Abstract

Understanding the spatial variation and formation mechanism of biological diversity is a hot topic in ecological studies. Comparing with α diversity, β diversity is more accurate in reflecting community dynamics. During the past decades, β diversity studies usually focused on plants, mammals, and birds. Studies of amphibian β diversity in montane ecosystems, in particular, tadpoles, are still rare. In this study, Mount Emei, located in southwestern China, was selected as the study area. We explored the tadpole β diversity in 18 streams, based on a two-year survey (2018–2019). Our results indicated a high total β diversity in tadpole assemblages, which was determined by both turnover and nestedness processes, and the dominant component was turnover. Both the total β diversity and turnover component were significantly and positively correlated with geographical, elevational, and environmental distances, but no significant relationship was detected between these and the nestedness component. Moreover, the independent contributions of river width, current velocity, and chlorophyll α were larger than that of geographical and elevational distance. Overall, tadpole β diversity was determined by both spatial and environmental factors, while the contribution of environmental factors was larger. Future studies can focus on functional and phylogenetic structures, to better understand the tadpole assembly process.