RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Environmental factors controlling lake diatom communities: a meta-analysis of published data A1 Blanco Lanza, Saúl A2 Ecologia K1 Biología K1 Ecología. Medio ambiente K1 Diatomeas K1 Lagos AB Diatoms play a key role in the development of quantitative methods for environmental reconstruction in lake ecosystems. Diatom-based calibration datasets developed dur-ing the last decades allow the inference of past limnological variables such as TP, pH or conductivity and provide information on the autecology and distribution of diatom taxa. However, little is known about the relationships between diatoms and climatic or geographic factors. The response of surface sediment diatom assemblages to abi-otic factors is usually examined using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and subsequent forward selection of variables based on Monte Carlo permutation tests that show the set of predictors best explaining the distributions of diatom species. The results reported in 40 previous studies using this methodology in different regions of the world are re-analyzed in this paper. Bi- and multivariate statistics (canonical cor-relation and two-block partial least-squares) were used to explore the correspondence between physical, chemical and physiographical factors and the variables that explain most of the variance in the diatom datasets. Results show that diatom communities respond mainly to chemical variables (pH, nutrients) with lake depth being the most important physiographical factor. However, the relative importance of certain param-eters varied along latitudinal and trophic gradients. Canonical analyses demonstrated a strong concordance with regard to the predictor variables and the amount of variance they captured, suggesting that, on a broad scale, lake diatoms give a robust indication of past and present environmental conditions. PB European Geosciences Union YR 2018 FD 2018-01-16 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10612/7088 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10612/7088 NO Biogeosciences Discussions, 2014 (11) NO p. 15889, 15909 DS BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León RD 01-jun-2024