Determinants of community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems

Abstract

River ecosystems are among the most affected habitats globally by human activities, such as the release of chemical pollutants. However, it remains largely unknown how and to what extent many communities such as zooplankton are affected by these environmental stressors in river ecosystems. Here, we aim to determine major factors responsible for shaping community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems. Specially, we use rotifers in the Haihe River Basin (HRB) in North China as a case study to test the hypothesis that species sorting (i.e. species are "filtered" by environmental factors and occur at environmental suitable sites) plays a key role in determining community structure at the basin level. Based on an analysis of 94 sites across the plain region of HRB, we found evidence that both local and regional factors could affect rotifer community structure. Interestingly, further analyses indicated that local factors played a more important role in determining community structure. Thus, our results support the species sorting hypothesis in highly polluted rivers, suggesting that local environmental constraints, such as environmental pollution caused by human activities, can be stronger than dispersal limitation caused by regional factors to shape local community structure of zooplankton at the basin level.