Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Hydrobiologia, cilt.851, sa.7, ss.1807-1823, 2024 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
For shallow lakes, the most dramatic ecosystem shift is that from a clear-water, macrophyte-dominated regime to a turbid, phytoplankton-dominated regime. Whereas many studies have focussed on the factors that trigger such shifts, it is still unclear how these changes shape fish diversity. In the present study, we characterised the fish communities taxonomically and functionally in Lake Taihu, China, along a spatial gradient of habitat types, i.e. algal-dominated, macrophyte-dominated, open-lake and aquaculture conversion zones. Random Forests regression was then applied to examine how fish diversities were related to environmental conditions. Our results showed that the taxonomic and functional composition of the fish community varied among different habitat regimes. Macrophyte and water quality were identified as the most important factors affecting the fish diversity indices. Habitats with a high macrophyte biomass and low nutrient concentration supported higher functional diversity. Moreover, our analysis revealed that although functional diversity indices were strongly correlated with species richness, they appeared more sensitive to changes in habitat conditions. Overall, our study highlights the importance of macrophyte-dominated state in maintaining fish diversity in freshwater ecosystems and provides new insight into how functional diversity can improve our understanding of the response of biodiversity to ecological processes.