LAUSR

Metacommunity ecology is a vibrant area of research that has received increased attention in recent years, since it provides a framework to assess the underlying dispersal‐ and niche‐based processes that create non‐random and ecologically meaningful patterns in species assemblages across the landscape. Here we set out to test for the role of dispersal limitation, species sorting and shared effects in the assembly of pond macrophyte metacommunities across an extensive area within the Iberian Plateau, and to identify which traits, environmental variables and spatial scales are driving local community structure.