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. 2025 Aug;27(8):e70157.
doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.70157.

Determinants of Cyanobacteria and Algae Diversity in Natural Freshwater Micro-Ecosystems

Yasmin Rodrigues de Souza  1 , Beatriz Melissa Campos  2 , Fernando Miranda Lansac-Toha  1 , Annika Busse  3 , Jana S Petermann  3 , Gustavo Quevedo Romero  4 , Pablo Augusto Poleto Antiqueira  5 , Luzia Cleide Rodrigues  1
Affiliations

Determinants of Cyanobacteria and Algae Diversity in Natural Freshwater Micro-Ecosystems

Yasmin Rodrigues de Souza et al. Environ Microbiol. 2025 Aug.

Abstract

In this context, estimating the contributions of single sites to overall beta diversity (LCBD-Local Contribution to Beta Diversity, i.e., indicator of site's ecological uniqueness) or partitioning overall beta diversity into contributions of individual species (SCBD-Species Contribution to Beta Diversity, i.e., degree of variation of individual species across the study area) has proven to be a good approach to improve the knowledge of drivers of beta diversity. The number of studies on beta diversity in hyperdiverse environments, such as the Neotropics, is still scarce. We explored the contributions of each site and species to the overall cyanobacteria and algae beta diversity of 77 natural freshwater micro-ecosystems (i.e., tank bromeliads) of a neotropical ecosystem. We observed that LCBD was negatively related to Shannon diversity, turbidity and luminosity (% canopy cover). The negative relationship between LCBD and Shannon diversity indicates that micro ecosystems with less diversity reflect unique characteristics, and LCBD values can predict these environments. In our study, high LCBD values indicated environments in need of restoration, that is, poor in species richness and with greater turbidity and luminosity, showing that most bromeliad tanks presented high species diversity and low turbidity and luminosity.

Keywords: brightness; canopy cover; diversity patterns; phytotelma.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic drawing of the tank bromeliad of the species Quesnelia arvensis Mez. (Bromeliaceae) used in this study and the canopy cover gradient. Source: Prepared by the author.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Species richness and abundance of each group of cyanobacteria and algae in bromeliad tanks in Brazilian Restinga forest. The bars represent calculated values for all sampling points, while the error graph (mean and standard error) corresponds to the calculation made for each micro‐ecosystem.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Relationship between species richness (left) and abundance (right) (response variables) of each group of cyanobacteria and algae in tank bromeliads with environmental variables (predictor variables). The bars represent the estimated coefficients of the regression (slope), where positive values mean a positive effect, and negative values mean a negative effect. Asterisk (*) indicates significant relationships (p < 0.05); only the significant variables were plotted.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Relationship between LCDB and species richness (a), abundance (b), Shannon Index (c) and Equitability (d) in tank bromeliads. The regression line is shown only for variables that were significant using a linear model.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Relationship between LCDB and environmental variables. The regression line is shown only for variables that were significant.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Relationship between species contribution to beta diversity (SCBD) and species frequency in large alga groups.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Species contribution to beta diversity (SCBD) in the four major groups. Dashed lines indicate the mean, while solid lines indicate the median for each group. Letters indicate significantly different contributions (p < 0.05) according to Tukey's test (a posteriori pairwise comparison).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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