Supplementary material available at: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1538731#supplementary-material-sec
The correlation between water physicochemical parameters and eukaryotic benthic composition was examined in Río Tinto. Principal component analysis showed a high inverse relationship between pH and most of the heavy metals analyzed as well as Dunaliella sp., while Chlamydomonas sp. abundance was positively related. Zn, Cu, and Ni clustered together and showed a strong inverse correlation with the diversity coefficient and most of the species analyzed. These eukaryotic communities seem to be more influenced by the presence of heavy metals than by the pH.
Work by A.A. and S.C.M. was supported by the Spanish Ministry
of Education and Science through the Program Ramón y Cajal. This
work has been supported by grants to the Centro de Astrobiología
at the Instituto National de Técnica Aeroespacial and grant
CGL2005-05470/BOS.
Peer reviewed