Effect of changes in the fractal structure of a littoral zone in the course of lake succession on the abundance, body size sequence and biomass of beetles
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Author and article information
Abstract
Dystrophic lakes undergo natural disharmonic succession, in the course of which an increasingly complex and diverse, mosaic-like pattern of habitats evolves. In the final seral stage, the most important role is played by a spreading Sphagnum mat, which gradually reduces the lake’s open water surface area. Long-term transformations in the primary structure of lakes cause changes in the structure of lake-dwelling fauna assemblages. Knowledge of the succession mechanisms in lake fauna is essential for proper lake management. The use of fractal concepts helps to explain the character of fauna in relation to other aspects of the changing complexity of habitats. Our 12-year-long study into the succession of water beetles has covered habitats of 40 selected lakes which are diverse in terms of the fractal dimension. The taxonomic diversity and density of lake beetles increase parallel to an increase in the fractal dimension. An in-depth analysis of the fractal structure proved to be helpful in explaining the directional changes in fauna induced by the natural succession of lakes. Negative correlations appear between the body size and abundance. An increase in the density of beetles within the higher dimension fractals is counterbalanced by a change in the size of individual organisms. As a result, the biomass is constant, regardless of the fractal dimension.
Cite this as
2018. Effect of changes in the fractal structure of a littoral zone in the course of lake succession on the abundance, body size sequence and biomass of beetles. PeerJ Preprints 6:e27167v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27167v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
Author comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Sections
Supplemental Information
General characteristics of the lakes
% – contribution in the littoral zone (Sm – Sphagnum mat, Di – Sparse macrophytes, De - Dense macrophytes, A – sandy bottom), T – Stage of succession (O – oligohumic, M – mesohumic, P – polyhumic), S – number of species.
Quantitative occurrence of beetles in humic lake
N – number of individuals, NS – number of samples. L – number of lakes, Bs – body size class, F – functional group (P – predators, S – saprophages, F – polyphages), P – Legal protection, EN,VU, LC – threat status (Polish Red List), min – minimum abundance of the species in a single sample (excluded samples where the species did not occur), max – abundance of the species in a single sample, Mean – average abundance of the species in a single sample, SD – standard deviation.
Results of HSD Tuckey post hoc test for GLM repeated measure Anova
Influence of significant interaction between habitats and Body size on A) abundance of beetles, B) number of species. SN - Subclass number, BS - Body size class (1-very small beetles, 2-small, 3-medium, 4-large, 5-very large), Habitat: Sphagnum – compacted Sphagnum mat, dense – dense macrophytes zone, sparse - sparse macrophytes zone,
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Joanna Pakulnicka conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Andrzej Zawal performed the experiments, analyzed the data, approved the final draft.
Field Study Permissions
The following information was supplied relating to field study approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
Field studies were conducted in accordance with field-study-approvals: Certificate of RDOS in Olsztyn (WOPN.070.21.2018.AKI), WNP certificate (PNE 08-070 / 18) and ZPK Certificate (060.1.2018).
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
The raw measurements are provided in the supplementary files (Appendix 4). The raw data shows all water beetles, their abundance collected in 40 lakes, and body size and weight. In addition, raw data show the habitat characteristics of the taken samples (also coded). All data was used for all statistical analyzes.
The raw data are provided in Appendix 4.
Funding
The authors received no funding for this work.
