Analysis of the Structure of the Metacommunity of Plankton and Bottom Organisms in Rivers of the Lake Elton Basin
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R ECOSYSTEMS OF ARID TERRITORIES
Analysis of the Structure of the Metacommunity of Plankton and Bottom Organisms in Rivers of the Lake Elton Basin T. D. Zinchenkoa, *, V. K. Shitikova, L. V. Golovatyuka, and E. V. Abrosimovaa aBranch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science Samara Federal Research Scientific Center, Institute of Ecology of the Volga River Basin, Russian Academy of Sciences, Tolyatti, Samara oblast, 445003 Russia *e-mail: [email protected]
Received March 6, 2020; revised March 20, 2020; accepted June 1, 2020
Abstract—A statistical analysis was performed on hydrochemical and hydrobiological data obtained from samples of macrozoobenthos, meiobenthos, and zooplankton in 2013 and 2018 from different biotopes of the five highly mineralized rivers of the basin of the hyperhaline Lake Elton. The general trends in the formation of the species structure of the metacommunity of aquatic organisms are considered based on the LyboldMikkelson concepts. Randomized null models are used to test hypotheses on the consistent occurrence of species (coherence), the formation of compact species associations (boundary clumping), and the regular change in the species composition along environmental gradients (turnover). The nature of changes in biotic diversity were determined to be nonstationary and intermittent, and the taxonomic structure was highly mosaic, which is characteristic of stochastic-type ecosystems. A close correlation was established within individual mixed associations of benthic and planktonic species due to biotic interactions and the coordinated response of organisms to environmental factors. Statistical models Random Forest and subsequent multivariate analysis were used to identify groups of species by the degree of tolerance to external abiotic influences, and the sets of factors having a significant impact were established. Keywords: saline rivers, zooplankton, macrozoobenthos, meiobenthos, metacommunity structure, indicator species, private correlation network, factor analysis DOI: 10.1134/S2079096120040204
INTRODUCTION Prieltonye is one of the most unique, natural-territorial complexes of the Lower Volga basin. The meso-, poly- and hyperhaline river systems located in it function under stochastic and often extreme climatic disturbances characteristic of arid zones, which causes sharp fluctuations in the number of individual populations hydrobionts (Zinchenko et al., 2017). Thus, the study of the interdependence of biotic elements within the planktonic and bottom communities of the rivers of the region is relevant and of genuine interest. We performed a statistical analysis of the taxonomic structure of hydrobionts of saline rivers basin of Lake Elton earlier using various multidimensional methods. This made it possible to highlight nonstationary species associations of the consortium type that formed dynamically, with allowance for the adaptive capabilities of individual taxa (Zinchenko et al., 2018). It was found that that there is no obvious, clear separation of the life form
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