Data from: Inferring the effects of potential dispersal routes on the metacommunity structure of stream insects: as the crow flies, as the fish swims or as the fox runs? ...

1. Metacommunity research relies largely on proxies for inferring the effect of dispersal on local community structure. Overland and watercourse distances have been typically used as such proxies. A good proxy for dispersal should, however, take into account more complex landscape features that can...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kärnä, Olli-Matti, Grönroos, Mira, Antikainen, Harri, Hjort, Jan, Ilmonen, Jari, Paasivirta, Lauri, Heino, Jani
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: Dryad 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9rt57
https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.9rt57
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Summary:1. Metacommunity research relies largely on proxies for inferring the effect of dispersal on local community structure. Overland and watercourse distances have been typically used as such proxies. A good proxy for dispersal should, however, take into account more complex landscape features that can affect an organism's movement and dispersal. The cost distance approach does just that, allowing determining the path of least resistance across a landscape. 2. Here, we examined the distance decay of assemblage similarity within a subarctic stream insect metacommunity. We tested whether overland, watercourse and cumulative cost distances performed differently as correlates of dissimilarity in assemblage composition between sites. We also investigated the effect of body size and dispersal mode on metacommunity organization. 3. We found that dissimilarities in assemblage composition correlated more strongly with environmental than physical distances between sites. Overland and watercourse distances showed similar ... : Appendix_Teno_2012_env&coordEnvironmental and spatial coordinate data for 55 stream sites in the River Tenojoki basin.Appendix_Teno_2012_speSite-by-species dataset for the insects found in the 55 stream sites in the River Tenojoki Basin. ...