AUTHOR=Brasil Leandro Schlemmer , Ferreira Victor Rennan Santos , Resende Bethânia Oliveira de , Juen Leandro , Batista Joana Darc , Castro Lourivaldo Amâncio de , Giehl Nubia França da Silva TITLE=Dams Change Beta Diversity of Aquatic Communities in the Veredas of the Brazilian Cerrado JOURNAL=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution VOLUME=9 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.612642 DOI=10.3389/fevo.2021.612642 ISSN=2296-701X ABSTRACT=
The veredas are wetland ecosystems responsible for supplying most of the water for rivers and streams in the Cerrado. The veredas’ hydromorfic soils retain a large amount of rainwater, releasing it slowly during drier periods. Therefore, these habitats are often used to build dams for cattle raising. Here we assessed the environmental conditions and beta-diversity of Odonata and Heteroptera on veredas impacted by dams in the Brazilian Cerrado. We sampled biological communities and a set of environmental variables in 13 veredas, six with dams and seven without dams. One limnological variable [oxidation–reduction potential (ORP)] and one landscape metric (% of the altered area) differed among veredas with and without dams. These variables were important predictors of the beta-diversity of both Odonata (