The metacommunity concept incorporates spatial dynamics into community ecology, shedding light on how local and regional processes interact in structuring ecological communities, and to which measure they are deterministic or stochastic. We reviewed metacommunity studies on freshwater meiobenthos published since 2004, when the main principles of metacommunity theory were conceptualized. The studies (together 19) were observational, focused mainly on ostracods, and rarely on rotifers and nematodes. In accordance with general expectations, the prevalent structuring force was species sorting. Ostracods showed more dispersal limitations than nematodes and rotifers, and there was very little support for dispersal surplus. We discussed the role of body size, dispersal mode, and attachment to sediment for the meiofauna dispersal. Effects of metacommunity context (habitat connectivity, spatial extent, and environmental heterogeneity), study design (e.g., sample size), and statistical approach could not be sufficiently disentangled due to the low number of studies. Local stochasticity, consistent with neutral theory and patch dynamics, was indicated for taxa with weak specialization and metacommunities in small habitats. Our understanding of meiofaunal metacommunities is only fragmentary and it would highly benefit from direct comparisons of taxa with different species traits and between different spatial scales, and studies incorporating temporal dynamics and hypothesis-driven experiments.

中文翻译：

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小型动物群作为测试生态元群落理论范式的模型

元社区概念将空间动态纳入社区生态学，阐明了地方和区域过程如何在构建生态社区时相互作用，以及它们是确定性还是随机性的衡量标准。我们回顾了自 2004 年发表的关于淡水小型底栖动物的元群落研究，当时元群落理论的主要原则被概念化。这些研究（共 19 项）是观察性的，主要关注介形虫，很少关注轮虫和线虫。按照一般预期，普遍的结构力量是物种分类。与线虫和轮虫相比，介形虫表现出更多的传播限制，并且对传播过剩的支持很少。我们讨论了体型大小、扩散模式和附着在沉积物中对小型动物扩散的作用。由于研究数量少，元社区背景（栖息地连通性、空间范围和环境异质性）、研究设计（例如样本量）和统计方法的影响无法充分解开。局部随机性与中性理论和斑块动态一致，适用于小栖息地中专业化较弱的分类群和元群落。我们对小型动物群落群落的理解只是零碎的，它会从具有不同物种特征和不同空间尺度的分类群的直接比较以及结合时间动态和假设驱动实验的研究中受益匪浅。由于研究数量少，统计方法无法充分解开。局部随机性与中性理论和斑块动态一致，适用于小栖息地中专业化较弱的分类群和元群落。我们对小型动物群落群落的理解只是零碎的，它会从具有不同物种特征和不同空间尺度的分类群的直接比较以及结合时间动态和假设驱动实验的研究中受益匪浅。由于研究数量少，统计方法无法充分解开。局部随机性与中性理论和斑块动态一致，适用于小栖息地中专业化较弱的分类群和元群落。我们对小型动物群落群落的理解只是零碎的，它会从具有不同物种特征和不同空间尺度的分类群的直接比较以及结合时间动态和假设驱动实验的研究中受益匪浅。