Hierarchical decomposition of trait patterns of macroinvertebrate communities in subarctic streams

AbstractEcological research based on both species and their traits helps us understand the mechanisms structuring ecological communities. Our aim was to dismantle the effects of environmental variables measured at multiple spatial scales on the taxonomic and functional trait composition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities and to clarify the relationship between the environment and communities in high-latitude streams. Traits were combined into unique trait combinations (site-by-traits matrix), called hereafter the overall trait composition of macroinvertebrate communities, and then the matrix was decomposed into progressively smaller parts of individual traits (site-by-individual trait matrix). The effects of variables from different spatial scales on the variation in the overall trait matrix, decomposed trait matrices, and taxonomic data were analyzed using redundancy analysis and partial linear regression modeling. Our analyses indicated that: 1) the taxonomic composition of communities was more cl...