TY - JOUR
T1 - Autecology of terrestrial diatoms under anthropic disturbance and across climate zones
AU - Foets, Jasper
AU - Stanek-Tarkowska, Jadwiga
AU - Teuling, Adriaan J.
AU - Van de Vijver, Bart
AU - Wetzel, Carlos E.
AU - Pfister, Laurent
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Like aquatic diatoms, terrestrial diatoms are sensitive to multiple environmental factors such as pH, anthropic disturbances, soil moisture and nitrogen. While most aquatic diatom species have well-known autecological values for several important variables, qualifying them as biological indicators, this potential has not yet been untapped for terrestrial diatoms. Here, we aim to establish autecological values for pH and soil moisture content using weighted averaging for common, widespread terrestrial diatoms and compare them with previous calculated indicator values and tolerance ranges. In order to provide robust autecological values, we combined the data of ecological studies carried out across a range of climate conditions. We found that our validation metrics improved considerably after removing samples collected in anthropic disturbed habitats, suggesting that anthropic disturbance is the principal factor defining taxon occurrences. Besides our results showing similarities with previous studies, they also showed a significant improvement on the existing indicator values. Moreover, we expanded the list of terrestrial diatoms to 249 taxa that may serve as environmental markers in different research fields.
AB - Like aquatic diatoms, terrestrial diatoms are sensitive to multiple environmental factors such as pH, anthropic disturbances, soil moisture and nitrogen. While most aquatic diatom species have well-known autecological values for several important variables, qualifying them as biological indicators, this potential has not yet been untapped for terrestrial diatoms. Here, we aim to establish autecological values for pH and soil moisture content using weighted averaging for common, widespread terrestrial diatoms and compare them with previous calculated indicator values and tolerance ranges. In order to provide robust autecological values, we combined the data of ecological studies carried out across a range of climate conditions. We found that our validation metrics improved considerably after removing samples collected in anthropic disturbed habitats, suggesting that anthropic disturbance is the principal factor defining taxon occurrences. Besides our results showing similarities with previous studies, they also showed a significant improvement on the existing indicator values. Moreover, we expanded the list of terrestrial diatoms to 249 taxa that may serve as environmental markers in different research fields.
KW - Anthropogenic disturbance
KW - Autecological values
KW - Diatoms
KW - Indicator
KW - Soil
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107248
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107248
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098978547
SN - 1470-160X
VL - 122
JO - Ecological Indicators
JF - Ecological Indicators
M1 - 107248
ER -