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Influence of ionic strength and conductivity on benthic diatom communities in a tropical river (Monjolinho), São Carlos-SP, Brazil

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Abstract

Benthic diatoms are important indicators of ecological conditions in lotic systems. The objective of this study was to elucidate the confounding effects of eutrophication, organic pollution and ionic strength and conductivity on benthic diatom communities. Benthic diatoms and water quality sampling was done at 10 sites during summer base flow period (2008 and 2009). Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to determine environmental gradients along which species vary with respect to ionic strength and conductivity and other environmental variables. Using variance partitioning, we assessed the individual importance of a set of environmental variables (eutrophication and organic pollution) versus ionic strength and conductivity on diatom community structure. The effects of ionic strength and conductivity and organic pollution, eutrophication and other environmental variables were integrated into overall resultant benthic diatom communities. Through partial CCA, we partitioned the variance in diatom data between two sets of exploratory variables, i.e. ionic strength and conductivity (26.9%); other variables, particularly eutrophication and organic pollution (23.0%); shared variance (11.3%) and unexplained variance (38.8%). Due to the interaction of the effects of ionic strength and conductivity and other variables in this study, laboratory experiments must be performed to confirm the observed effects of ionic strength and conductivity.

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Acknowledgments

This study was made possible by the provision of funds from Third World Academy of Science through Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico. I also wish to thank the Insttituto Internacional de Ecologia management and staff for their support during the course of this study.

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  1. Instituto Internacional de Ecologia, Rua Bento Carlos, 750, Centro, São Carlos, São Paulo, CEP 13560-660, Brazil

    Taurai Bere & José Galizia Tundisi

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  1. Taurai Bere
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Correspondence to Taurai Bere.

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Bere, T., Tundisi, J.G. Influence of ionic strength and conductivity on benthic diatom communities in a tropical river (Monjolinho), São Carlos-SP, Brazil. Hydrobiologia 661, 261–276 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0532-0

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