Community dynamics in highland watersheds

Chapter 6 presents the interaction between space and time in determining the organization of natural communities in high altitude heterogeneous waterscapes. After explaining why high altitude waters represent suitable models for examining metacommunity organization, the chapter focuses on dispersal—a central process to allow colonization and establishment of populations in remote localities and to counter local extinctions. Community organization patterns are then described for a variety of organisms living in high altitude waters, from microbes to invertebrates to fish and birds. These patterns reveal that both environmental and spatial variables are generally involved in species assembling. Examples of studies on directional spatial processes (e.g. through wind and water flow), waterscape genetics, and temporal variability (synchrony/asynchrony) are highlighted as promising research areas to increase the current knowledge on high altitude metacommunity dynamics.