scholarly journals Taxonomic and functional anuran beta diversity of a subtropical metacommunity respond differentially to environmental and spatial predictors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Anderson Dalmolin ◽  
Alexandro Marques Tozetti ◽  
Maria João Ramos Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Variation Partitioning ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Environmental Filters ◽  
Abundance Data ◽  
Behavioural Characteristics ◽  
Metacommunity Structure ◽  
Total Turnover ◽  
Spatial Predictors

AbstractThe relative contributions of environmental and spatial predictors in the patterns of taxonomic and functional anuran beta diversity were examined in 33 ponds of a metacommunity along the coast of south Brazil. Anurans exhibit limited dispersion ability and have physiological and behavioural characteristics that narrow their relationships with both environmental and spatial predictors. So, we expected that neutral processes and, in particular, niche-based processes could have similar influence on the taxonomic and functional beta diversity patterns. Variation partitioning and distance-based methods (db-RDA) were conducted with presence/absence and abundance data to examine taxonomic and functional facets and components (total, turnover and nestedness-resultant) in relation to environmental and spatial predictors. Processes determining metacommunity structure were similar between the components of beta diversity but differed among taxonomic and functional diversity. While taxonomic beta diversity was further accounted by environmental predictors, functional beta diversity responded more strongly to spatial predictors. These patterns were more evident when assessed through abundance data. These opposing patterns were contrary to what we had predicted, suggesting that while there is a taxonomic turnover mediated by environmental filters, the spatial distance promotes the trait dissimilarity between sites. Our results reinforce the idea that studies aiming to evaluate the patterns of structure in metacommunities should include different facets of diversity so that better interpretations can be achieved.

scholarly journals Local environmental variables are key drivers of ant taxonomic and functional beta-diversity in a Mediterranean dryland

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Frasconi Wendt ◽  
Ana Ceia-Hasse ◽  
Alice Nunes ◽  
Robin Verble ◽  
Giacomo Santini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Variation Partitioning ◽  
Environmental Filters ◽  
Spatial Variables ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
Main Determinants ◽  
Functional Replacement

AbstractThe decomposition of beta-diversity (β-diversity) into its replacement (βrepl) and richness (βrich) components in combination with a taxonomic and functional approach, may help to identify processes driving community composition along environmental gradients. We aimed to understand which abiotic and spatial variables influence ant β-diversity and identify which processes may drive ant β-diversity patterns in Mediterranean drylands by measuring the percentage of variation in ant taxonomic and functional β-diversity explained by local environmental, regional climatic and spatial variables. We found that taxonomic and functional replacement (βrepl) primarily drove patterns in overall β-diversity (βtot). Variation partitioning analysis showed that respectively 16.8%, 12.9% and 21.6% of taxonomic βtot, βrepl and βrich variation were mainly explained by local environmental variables. Local environmental variables were also the main determinants of functional β-diversity, explaining 20.4%, 17.9% and 23.2% of βtot, βrepl and βrich variation, respectively. Findings suggest that niche-based processes drive changes in ant β-diversity, as local environmental variables may act as environmental filters on species and trait composition. While we found that local environmental variables were important predictors of ant β-diversity, further analysis should address the contribution of other mechanisms, e.g. competitive exclusion and resource partitioning, on ant β-diversity.

scholarly journals Beta diversity patterns of Bromeliaceae growing on rocky cliffs within the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edilaine Andrade Melo ◽  
Jorge Luiz Waechter
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
Atlantic Forest ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Variation Partitioning ◽  
Floristic Composition ◽  
Spatial Effects ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Β Diversity

Abstract: In recent years there has been increasing attention in patterns of β-diversity and mechanisms related to variations in species composition. In this study, we evaluated beta diversity patterns of bromeliads growing on cliffs immersed in Atlantic Forest. We hypothesized that the species composition varies according to the spatial scale, inferring that there is a replacement of species influenced mainly by environmental factors. The study was carried out on sandstone cliffs included in contiguous but distinct vegetation formations: Evergreen and Seasonal forests. Twenty-four vertical rocky outcrops were sampled. The spatial variation in species composition was evaluated by two β-diversity components, turnover and nestedness. Multivariate analysis and variation partitioning were performed to distinguish niche and stochastic processes. We recorded 26 bromeliad species and a significantly higher contribution of turnover explaining beta diversity. Environmental factors affect β-diversity patterns of Bromeliaceae. However, individually, the environmental predictors do not explain the data variation. Environmental variations spatially structured, and spatial variables determinate the dissimilarity in the composition of bromeliads on cliffs. Thus, our results revealed that both environmental and spatial effects can act together to define the floristic composition of rock-dwelling bromeliad communities.

scholarly journals Local-scale determinants of arboreal spider beta diversity in a temperate forest: roles of tree architecture, spatial distance, and dispersal capacity

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiongdao Zhang ◽  
Dong He ◽  
Hua Wu ◽  
Wei Shi ◽  
Cong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Environmental Gradient ◽  
Dispersal Limitation ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Tree Architecture ◽  
Habitat Specialization ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Dispersal Capacity ◽  
Canopy Volume

Spiders are a functionally important taxon in forest ecosystems, but the determinants of arboreal spider beta diversity are poorly understood at the local scale. We examined spider assemblages in 324 European beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees of varying sizes across three forest stands in Würzburg (Germany) to disentangle the roles of tree architecture, spatial distance, and dispersal capacity on spider turnover across individual trees. A large proportion of tree pairs (66%) showed higher compositional dissimilarity in spider assemblages than expected by chance, suggesting prominent roles of habitat specialization and/or dispersal limitation. Trees with higher dissimilarity in DBH and canopy volume, and to a lesser extent in foliage cover, supported more dissimilar spider assemblages, suggesting that tree architecture comprised a relevant environmental gradient of sorting spider species. Variation partitioning revealed that 28.4% of the variation in beta diversity was jointly explained by tree architecture, spatial distance (measured by principal coordinates of neighbor matrices) and dispersal capacity (quantified by ballooning propensity). Among these, dispersal capacity accounted for a comparable proportion as spatial distance did (6.8% vs. 5.9%). Beta diversity did not significantly differ between high- and low-vagility groups, but beta diversity in species with high vagility was more strongly determined by spatially structured environmental variation. Altogether, both niche specialization, along the environmental gradient defined by tree architecture, and dispersal limitation are responsible for structuring arboreal spider assemblages. High dispersal capacity of spiders appears to reinforce the role of niche-related processes.

scholarly journals Taxonomic and functional anuran beta diversity of a subtropical metacommunity respond differentially to environmental and spatial predictors

PLoS ONE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. e0214902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Anderson Dalmolin ◽  
Alexandro Marques Tozetti ◽  
Maria João Ramos Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Spatial Predictors

scholarly journals Drivers of beta diversity in modern and ancient reef-associated soft-bottom environments

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9139
Author(s):  
Vanessa Julie Roden ◽  
Martin Zuschin ◽  
Alexander Nützel ◽  
Imelda M. Hausmann ◽  
Wolfgang Kiessling
Keyword(s):  
Water Depth ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Priority Effects ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Compositional Variation ◽  
Soft Bottom ◽  
Cassian Formation

Beta diversity, the compositional variation among communities, is often associated with environmental gradients. Other drivers of beta diversity include stochastic processes, priority effects, predation, or competitive exclusion. Temporal turnover may also explain differences in faunal composition between fossil assemblages. To assess the drivers of beta diversity in reef-associated soft-bottom environments, we investigate community patterns in a Middle to Late Triassic reef basin assemblage from the Cassian Formation in the Dolomites, Northern Italy, and compare results with a Recent reef basin assemblage from the Northern Bay of Safaga, Red Sea, Egypt. We evaluate beta diversity with regard to age, water depth, and spatial distance, and compare the results with a null model to evaluate the stochasticity of these differences. Using pairwise proportional dissimilarity, we find very high beta diversity for the Cassian Formation (0.91 ± 0.02) and slightly lower beta diversity for the Bay of Safaga (0.89 ± 0.04). Null models show that stochasticity only plays a minor role in determining faunal differences. Spatial distance is also irrelevant. Contrary to expectations, there is no tendency of beta diversity to decrease with water depth. Although water depth has frequently been found to be a key factor in determining beta diversity, we find that it is not the major driver in these reef-associated soft-bottom environments. We postulate that priority effects and the biotic structuring of the sediment may be key determinants of beta diversity.

scholarly journals What drives the assembly of plant-associated protist microbiomes?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Dumack ◽  
Kai Feng ◽  
Sebastian Flues ◽  
Melanie Sapp ◽  
Susanne Schreiter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Small World ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Environmental Filters ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Scale Free ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Species Specific

AbstractIn a field experiment we investigated the influence of the environmental filters soil type and plant species identity on rhizosphere community assembly of Cercozoa, a dominant group of (mostly bacterivorous) soil protists. The experiment was set up with two plant species, lettuce and potato, grown in an experimental plot system with three contrasting soils. Plant species (14%) and rhizosphere origin (vs. bulk soil) with 13%, together explained four times more variation in cercozoan beta diversity than the three soil types (7% explained variation in beta diversity). Our results clearly confirm the existence of plant species-specific protist communities. Network analyses of bacteria-Cercozoa rhizosphere communities identified scale-free small world topologies, indicating mechanisms of self-organization. While the assembly of rhizosphere bacterial communities is bottom-up controlled through the resource supply from root (secondary) metabolites, our results support the hypothesis that the net effect may depend on the strength of top-down control by protist grazers. Since grazing of protists has a strong impact on the composition and functioning of bacteria communities, protists expand the repertoire of plant genes by functional traits, and should be considered as ‘protist microbiomes’ in analogy to ‘bacterial microbiomes’.HighlightMicrobiomes of rhizosphere protists are plant species-specific and tightly co-evolving with their bacterial prey, thereby extending and modifying the functional repertoire of the bacterial-plant symbiosis.

scholarly journals Variable elements of metacommunity structure across an aquatic-terrestrial ecotone

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D Tonkin ◽  
Stefan Stoll ◽  
Sonja C Jähnig ◽  
Peter Haase
Keyword(s):  
River System ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Context Dependency ◽  
Carabid Beetles ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Environmental Filters ◽  
Metacommunity Structure ◽  
Random Distributions ◽  
Trait Groups ◽  
Elements Of Metacommunity Structure

The Elements of Metacommunity Structure (EMS) framework gives rise to important ecological insights through the distinction of metacommunities into several different idealised structures. We examined the EMS in assemblages occupying a low-mountain river system in central Germany, sampled over three consecutive years. We compared the idealised distributions of assemblages in both the riparian floodplain zone (carabid beetles and spiders) and the benthic instream environment (benthic invertebrates). We further grouped instream organisms into taxonomic and trait groups to examine whether greater competition signal emerges in more similar species groups. We found little evidence of strong competition, even for trait-modality groups, and nestedness was almost non-existent. In addition to random distributions, Gleasonian distributions (indicating clear, but individualistic turnover between sites) were the most commonly identified structure. Clear differences were apparent between different trait groups, particularly between within-trait modalities. These were most evident for different dispersal modes and life cycle durations, with strong dispersers showing possible signs of mass effects. While random distributions may have partly reflected small sample sizes, clearly coherent patterns were evident for many groups, indicating a sufficient gradient in environmental conditions. The prevalence of random distributions suggests many species are responding to a variety of environmental filters in these river-floodplain metacommunities in an anthropogenically-dominated landscape, whereas Gleasonian distributions indicate species are responding idiosyncratically to a primary environmental gradient. Our findings further emphasise the prevalence of context dependency (spatio-temporal variability) in metacommunity studies and emphasise the need to further disentangle the causes of such variation.

scholarly journals Trait-environment relationship in tadpoles of the southern Atlantic Forest

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roseli Coelho dos Santos ◽  
Diego Brum ◽  
Diego Anderson Dalmolin ◽  
Renata Farina ◽  
Elaine Lucas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Forest ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Morphological Traits ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Total Alkalinity ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Environmental Filters ◽  
Temperature Conductivity ◽  
Landscape Variables ◽  
Water Characteristics

Environmental predictors select individuals by their functional traits, shaping the anuran assembly patterns. Individuals respond to environmental filters that can be on a local or regional scale.In this study, we investigated the association between local (water and microhabitat) and landscape variables and the morphological traits of tadpoles of ponds and streams. The study was conducted in the southern region of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We sampled 28 waterbodies and recorded 22 anurans species. We performed RLQ and fourth-corner analyses to determine the patterns of trait-environment relationships and determine which environmental and landscape variables influence the morphological characteristics of tadpoles from streams and ponds. We found that the morphological traits of tadpoles are influenced mainly by physicochemical and microhabitat attributes, being distinct between ponds and streams. In ponds, water depth, pH, and the presence of vegetation influence the morphological traits of the tadpoles, while in the streams water pH, temperature, conductivity, total alkalinity, Alk HCO3, and microhabitat variables played a major role in defining the traits. Our results indicate that local components of habitat (water characteristics and microhabitat) influence functional traits of tadpoles in both ponds and streams, especially those supposedly related to locomotory, foraging and prey-detection abilities.

Contrasting metacommunity structure and beta diversity in an aquatic-floodplain system

Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 125 (5) ◽  
pp. 686-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Tonkin ◽  
Stefan Stoll ◽  
Sonja C. Jähnig ◽  
Peter Haase
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Metacommunity Structure
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