Concordance among aquatic communities in a tropical irrigation system

Different biological communities may exhibit similar spatial and/or temporal distributional patterns, a property termed community concordance. This study was conducted in a tropical irrigation system (Araguaia River fioodplain) and aimed to quantify concordance levels between three aquatic communities (zooplankton, benthic macroinvertebrates, and aquatic macrophytes), and between these communities and a set of environmental predictors. To accomplish these goals, we used ordination techniques and Procrustean analysis. There were no relationships between the communities, and only zooplankton community patterns were significantly correlated with environmental predictors. These results indicate that biological surrogacy can be a flawed approach at small spatial scales and highlight the importance of the zooplankton community as a reliable ecological indicator in this type of system. (C) 2014 Associacao Brasileira de Ciencia Ecologica e Conservacao. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda.