TY - JOUR
T1 - Species richness of mussel assemblages and trait guilds in relation to environment and fish diversity in streams of Illinois, the USA
AU - Cao, Yong
AU - Hinz, Leon C
AU - Taylor, Christopher A.
AU - Metzke, Brian
AU - Cummings, Kevin S
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the General Revenue Fund of Illinois Natural Survey and a grant from Illinois Department of Natural Resources through the Illinois State Wildlife Grant Program (T-53-D-1, T-82-R-1).
Funding Information:
This study was supported by a State Wildlife Grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (T-82-R-1). We thank Emily Feng for generating a map and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Fish hosts are critical for freshwater mussels. However, correlation between mussel and fish species richness (SR) is variable. Here, we examine how the environment affects this variability. We calculated mussel–fish SR ratios for 459 stream sites to capture the different responses of mussel and fish SR to environmental variables. We used Random-Forests (RF) to model how the SR ratio varied with environmental gradients. We also modeled the percent SR of mussel guilds with different hosting and life-history strategies. The SR ratio was generally low, but highly variable across sites. The ratio variability strongly affected mussel-fish SR correlations and can be explained by environmental factors. Given that environmental gradients also differ among datasets or regions, mussel-fish SR correlation can be expected to vary. The responses of the SR of mussel guilds agree with the expectations. However, land-use and climate co-vary with other environmental variables, and their effects are difficult to assess. We conclude that mussel and fish respond differently to many environmental variables; the importance of fish SR to mussel SR may vary with the environmental settings of streams but often appears to be low. Thus, environmental data may be generally sufficient for mussel-SR modelling and mussel diversity conservation planning.
AB - Fish hosts are critical for freshwater mussels. However, correlation between mussel and fish species richness (SR) is variable. Here, we examine how the environment affects this variability. We calculated mussel–fish SR ratios for 459 stream sites to capture the different responses of mussel and fish SR to environmental variables. We used Random-Forests (RF) to model how the SR ratio varied with environmental gradients. We also modeled the percent SR of mussel guilds with different hosting and life-history strategies. The SR ratio was generally low, but highly variable across sites. The ratio variability strongly affected mussel-fish SR correlations and can be explained by environmental factors. Given that environmental gradients also differ among datasets or regions, mussel-fish SR correlation can be expected to vary. The responses of the SR of mussel guilds agree with the expectations. However, land-use and climate co-vary with other environmental variables, and their effects are difficult to assess. We conclude that mussel and fish respond differently to many environmental variables; the importance of fish SR to mussel SR may vary with the environmental settings of streams but often appears to be low. Thus, environmental data may be generally sufficient for mussel-SR modelling and mussel diversity conservation planning.
KW - Habitat preference
KW - Illinois streams
KW - Mussel diversity
KW - Parasite–host relationship
KW - Species richness
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U2 - 10.1007/s10750-022-04859-z
DO - 10.1007/s10750-022-04859-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85127571669
SN - 0018-8158
VL - 849
SP - 2193
EP - 2208
JO - Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Health
JF - Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Health
IS - 9
ER -