TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the interplay of biotic interactions and salinity stress in freshwater invertebrate assemblages
T2 - Reply to Chessman (2022)
AU - Kefford, Ben J.
AU - Bray, Jon P.
AU - Nichols, Susan J.
AU - Reich, Jollene
AU - Mac Nally, Ralph
AU - O'Reilly-Nugent, Andrew
AU - Kon Kam King, Guillaume
AU - Thompson, Ross
N1 - Funding Information:
Declaration of funding. The experiment reported in Bray et al. (2019) and Kefford et al. (2022) were funded by Australian Research Council Linkage Projects LP130100100 (awarded to B. J. Kefford and others) and LP160100093 (awarded to B. J. Kefford, S. J. Nichols, R. Mac Nally, Bruce Chessman, Ary Hoffmann, Leon Metzeling, Peter Goonan, Michael Warne and Sarit Kaserzon).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 CSIRO. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - The most parsimonious interpretation of our experimental findings (Bray 2019;Kefford 2022) is that the effect of experimental increases in salinity on stream macroinvertebrate communities, was altered by organisms from a high-salinity site. This interpretation is consistent with long-established and widely accepted ecological and ecotoxicological theory. The suggestion (Chessman 2022) that the initial community was confounded, that it converged within the first week of the experiment and then diverged again, is neither parsimonious nor explicable by theory. All experiments are imperfect, yet we maintain that our experiment is informative, and we encourage other researchers to generate new data to inform on the degree to which abiotic and biotic effects of salinity, and other abiotic stressors, affect ecological communities.
AB - The most parsimonious interpretation of our experimental findings (Bray 2019;Kefford 2022) is that the effect of experimental increases in salinity on stream macroinvertebrate communities, was altered by organisms from a high-salinity site. This interpretation is consistent with long-established and widely accepted ecological and ecotoxicological theory. The suggestion (Chessman 2022) that the initial community was confounded, that it converged within the first week of the experiment and then diverged again, is neither parsimonious nor explicable by theory. All experiments are imperfect, yet we maintain that our experiment is informative, and we encourage other researchers to generate new data to inform on the degree to which abiotic and biotic effects of salinity, and other abiotic stressors, affect ecological communities.
KW - biotic interactions
KW - experimental design
KW - major ions
KW - mesocosm experiments
KW - realised niche
KW - salinity
KW - stream invertebrates
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128515738&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1071/MF22043
DO - 10.1071/MF22043
M3 - Comment/debate
AN - SCOPUS:85128515738
SN - 1323-1650
VL - 73
SP - 585
EP - 587
JO - Marine and Freshwater Research
JF - Marine and Freshwater Research
IS - 5
ER -