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Community structure of invertebrate fauna in central Chilean rivers
De Los Ríos Escalante, Patricio
Díaz, Gustavo
González, Jorge
Górski, Konrad
Habit, Evelyn
Acta Limnologica Brasiliensia
2019
River systems of Central Chile are short, steep and fast flowing. They are characterized by discharge regimes dominated by rainfall and snowmelt. Invertebrate fauna is highly endemic. This study aimed to describe the community structure of invertebrate in eight river systems in Central Chile (33-39°S) using species co-occurrence and niche sharing null models. Methods: Invertebrate samples were collected from Central Chilean rivers (33-39°S), data were analyzed co-occurrence species and niche sharing null models for determine potential structuring patterns. Results: The results revealed the presence of non-structured patterns in co-occurrence considering each site as well as all sites, that is most probably an effect of presence of many repeated species in the studied sites. Furthermore, we found the existence of niche overlap due to interspecific competition at each site and among all sites. The results obtained from these river systems corroborate observations from Chilean Patagonian Rivers. Conclusion: This study contributes to understanding of biogeographical and ecological patterns of invertebrate communities in central Chilean Rivers and provide foundations for more complex ecological studies
Fluvial ecosystems
Zooplankton
Aquatic insects
Crustaceans
Null models