Body size and dispersal mode as key traits determining metacommunity structure of aquatic organisms

Relationships between traits of organisms and the structure of their metacommunities have so far mainly been explored with meta‐analyses. We compared metacommunities of a wide variety of aquatic organism groups (12 groups, ranging from bacteria to fish) in the same set of 99 ponds to minimise biases inherent to meta‐analyses. In the category of passive dispersers, large‐bodied groups showed stronger spatial patterning than small‐bodied groups...