Species distribution, ecology, abundance, body size and phylogeny originate interrelated rarity patterns at regional scale

AbstractPaleecological data allow not only the study of trends along deep-time chronological transects but can also be used to reconstruct ecological gradients through time, which can help identify causal factors that may be strongly correlated in modern ecosystems. We have applied such an analysis to Bergmann’s rule, which posits a causal relationship between temperature and body size in mammals. Bergmann’s rule predicts that latitudinal gradients should exist during any interval of time, with larger taxa toward the poles and smaller taxa toward the equator. It also predicts that the strength of these gradients should vary with time, becoming weaker during warmer periods and stronger during colder conditions. We tested these predictions by reconstructing body-mass trends within canid and equid genera at different intervals of the Oligo-Miocene along the West Coast of North America. To allow for comparisons with modern taxa, body mass was reconstructed along the same transect for modernCanisandOdocoileus. Of the 17 fossil genera analyzed, only two showed the expected positive relationship with latitude, nor was there consistent evidence for a relationship between paleotemperature and body mass. Likewise, the strength of body-size gradients does not change predictably with climate through time. The evidence for clear gradients is ambiguous even in the modern genera analyzed. These results suggest that, counter to Bergmann’s rule, temperature alone is not a primary driver of body size and underscore the importance of regional-scale paleoecological analyses in identifying such drivers.

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Assessing the effect of fish size on species distribution model performance in southern Chilean rivers

10.7287/peerj.preprints.26874 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Zamorano ◽

Fabio Labra ◽

Marcelo Villarroel ◽

Luca Mao ◽

Shaw Lucy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Species Distribution ◽

River Flow ◽

Species Distribution Model ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Model Performance ◽

Distribution Model ◽

Distribution Models ◽

Fish Size ◽

River Fish

Despite its theoretical relationship, the effect of body size on the performance of species distribution models (SDM) has only been assessed in a few studies of terrestrial taxa. We aim to assess the effect of body size on the performance of SDM in river fish. We study seven Chilean freshwater fish, using models trained with three different sets of predictor variables: ecological (Eco), anthropogenic (Antr) and both (Eco+Antr). Our results indicate that the performance of the Eco+Antr models improves with fish size. These results highlight the importance of two novel predictive layers: the source of river flow and the overproduction of biotopes by anthropogenic activities. We compare our work with previous studies that modeled river fish, and observe a similar relationship in most cases. We discuss the current challenges of the modeling of riverine species, and how our work helps suggest possible solutions.

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Understanding the ecological niche to elucidate spatial strategies of the southernmost Tupinambis lizards

Amphibia-Reptilia ◽

10.1163/15685381-00002917 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 34 (4) ◽

pp. 551-565 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Sofía Lanfri ◽

Valeria Di Cola ◽

Sergio Naretto ◽

Margarita Chiaraviglio ◽

Gabriela Cardozo

Keyword(s):

Species Distribution ◽

Evolutionary Biology ◽

Species Distribution Models ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Distribution Patterns ◽

Niche Differentiation ◽

Ecological Niches ◽

Distribution Models ◽

Interspecific Differences ◽

Spatial Strategies

Understanding factors that shape ranges of species is central in evolutionary biology. Species distribution models have become important tools to test biogeographical, ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. Moreover, from an ecological and evolutionary perspective, these models help to elucidate the spatial strategies of species at a regional scale. We modelled species distributions of two phylogenetically, geographically and ecologically close Tupinambis species (Teiidae) that occupy the southernmost area of the genus distribution in South America. We hypothesized that similarities between these species might have induced spatial strategies at the species level, such as niche differentiation and divergence of distribution patterns at a regional scale. Using logistic regression and MaxEnt we obtained species distribution models that revealed interspecific differences in habitat requirements, such as environmental temperature, precipitation and altitude. Moreover, the models obtained suggest that although the ecological niches of Tupinambis merianae and T. rufescens are different, these species might co-occur in a large contact zone. We propose that niche plasticity could be the mechanism enabling their co-occurrence. Therefore, the approach used here allowed us to understand the spatial strategies of two Tupinambis lizards at a regional scale.

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Tree species distribution in Andean forests: influence of regional and local factors

Journal of Tropical Ecology ◽

10.1017/s0266467411000617 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 83-95 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Cecilia Blundo ◽

Lucio R. Malizia ◽

John G. Blake ◽

Alejandro D. Brown

Keyword(s):

Environmental Factors ◽

Species Composition ◽

Species Distribution ◽

Tree Species ◽

Altitudinal Gradient ◽

Local Community ◽

Climatic Factors ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Tree Species Composition ◽

Local Factors

Abstract:We identified and quantified regional and local environmental factors and spatial variation associated with tree-species composition across a 2000-m altitudinal gradient of Andean forest in north-western Argentina. A network of 47 1-ha plots was established along the altitudinal gradient within an area of about 25 000 km2; all trees ≥ 10 cm dbh were identified and measured. Constrained ordinations and variance-partitioning analyses were performed to investigate the determinants of tree-species distribution at the regional scale, across and within forest types (i.e. dry and cloud forests). We marked and measured a total of 22 240 trees belonging to 160 species. Significant environmental factors and spatial location combined accounted for 35% of total variation explained. A high proportion of variation was explained by climatic factors that were spatially structured; after removing the spatial effect, climate explained more variation in species composition across the complete gradient than did local factors. Relative importance of regional and local factors varied with geographic extent. Local factors explained more variation in tree-species composition at the within-forest scale than at the scale of the complete gradient. Our findings support the conceptual model of multi-scale controls on vegetation distribution, where local community composition and abundance result from processes at both regional and local scales.

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Associations Between Habitat Quality And Body Size In The Carpathian Land Snail Vestia turgida: Species Distribution Model Selection And Assessment Of Performance

10.1101/2020.05.09.085746 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

V. Tytar ◽

O. Baidashnikov

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Habitat Quality ◽

Species Distribution ◽

Habitat Suitability ◽

Species Distribution Model ◽

Land Snail ◽

Distribution Model ◽

Distribution Models ◽

Data Set ◽

Additive Regression

Species distribution models (SDMs) are generally thought to be good indicators of habitat suitability, and thus of species’ performance, consequently SDMs can be validated by checking whether the areas projected to have the greatest habitat quality are occupied by individuals or populations with higher than average fitness. We hypothesized a positive and statistically significant relationship between observed in the field body size of the snail V. turgida and modelled habitat suitability, tested this relationship with linear mixed models, and found that indeed, larger individuals tend to occupy high-quality areas, as predicted by the SDMs. However, by testing several SDM algorithms, we found varied levels of performance in terms of expounding this relationship. Marginal R2, expressing the variance explained by the fixed terms in the regression models, was adopted as a measure of functional accuracy, and used to rank the SDMs accordingly. In this respect, the Bayesian additive regression trees (BART) algorithm (Carlson, 2020) gave the best result, despite the low AUC and TSS. By restricting our analysis to the BART algorithm only, a variety of sets of environmental variables commonly or less used in the construction of SDMs were explored and tested according to their functional accuracy. In this respect, the SDM produced using the ENVIREM data set (Title, Bemmels, 2018) gave the best result.

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Assessing the effect of fish size on species distribution model performance in southern Chilean rivers

10.7287/peerj.preprints.26874v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Zamorano ◽

Fabio Labra ◽

Marcelo Villarroel ◽

Luca Mao ◽

Shaw Lucy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Species Distribution ◽

River Flow ◽

Species Distribution Model ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Model Performance ◽

Distribution Model ◽

Distribution Models ◽

Fish Size ◽

River Fish

Despite its theoretical relationship, the effect of body size on the performance of species distribution models (SDM) has only been assessed in a few studies of terrestrial taxa. We aim to assess the effect of body size on the performance of SDM in river fish. We study seven Chilean freshwater fish, using models trained with three different sets of predictor variables: ecological (Eco), anthropogenic (Antr) and both (Eco+Antr). Our results indicate that the performance of the Eco+Antr models improves with fish size. These results highlight the importance of two novel predictive layers: the source of river flow and the overproduction of biotopes by anthropogenic activities. We compare our work with previous studies that modeled river fish, and observe a similar relationship in most cases. We discuss the current challenges of the modeling of riverine species, and how our work helps suggest possible solutions.

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Predicting the Distribution of Oxytropis ochrocephala Bunge in the Source Region of the Yellow River (China) Based on UAV Sampling Data and Species Distribution Model

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13245129 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (24) ◽

pp. 5129

Author(s):

Xinyu Zhang ◽

Yaxin Yuan ◽

Zequn Zhu ◽

Qingshan Ma ◽

Hongyan Yu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Distribution ◽

Yellow River ◽

Source Region ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Distribution Model ◽

Suitable Habitat ◽

Observation Data ◽

Distribution Ranges

Oxytropis ochrocephala Bunge is an herbaceous perennial poisonous weed. It severely affects the production of local animal husbandry and ecosystem stability in the source region of Yellow River (SRYR), China. To date, however, the spatiotemporal distribution of O. ochrocephala is still unclear, mainly due to lack of high-precision observation data and effective methods at a regional scale. In this study, an efficient sampling method, based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), was proposed to supply basic sampling data for species distribution models (SDMs, BIOMOD in this study). A total of 3232 aerial photographs were obtained, from 2018 to 2020, in SRYR, and the potential and future distribution of O. ochrocephala were predicted by an ensemble model, consisting of six basic models of BIOMOD. The results showed that: (1) O. ochrocephala mainly distributed in the southwest, middle, and northeast of the SRYR, and the high suitable habitat of O. ochrocephala accounted for 3.19%; (2) annual precipitation and annual mean temperature were the two most important factors that affect the distribution of O. ochrocephala, with a cumulative importance of 60.45%; and (3) the distribution probability of O. ochrocephala tends to increase from now to the 2070s, while spatial distribution ranges will remain in the southwest, middle, and northeast of the SRYR. This study shows that UAVs can potentially be used to obtain the basic data for species distribution modeling; the results are both beneficial to establishing reasonable management practices and animal husbandry in alpine grassland systems.

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Exploring the Interplay Between Local and Regional Drivers of Distribution of a Subterranean Organism

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d11080119 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 119 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Stefano Mammola ◽

Shlomi Aharon ◽

Merav Seifan ◽

Yael Lubin ◽

Efrat Gavish-Regev

Keyword(s):

Species Distribution ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Regional Distribution ◽

Ecological Factors ◽

Local Scale ◽

Model Systems ◽

Mean Annual Temperature ◽

Distribution Models

Caves are excellent model systems to study the effects of abiotic factors on species distributions due to their selective conditions. Different ecological factors have been shown to affect species distribution depending on the scale of analysis, whether regional or local. The interplay between local and regional factors in explaining the spatial distribution of cave-dwelling organisms is poorly understood. Using the troglophilic subterranean spider Artema nephilit (Araneae: Pholcidae) as a model organism, we investigated whether similar environmental predictors drive the species distribution at these two spatial scales. At the local scale, we monitored the abundance of the spiders and measured relevant environmental features in 33 caves along the Jordan Rift Valley. We then extended the analysis to a regional scale, investigating the drivers of the distribution using species distribution models. We found that similar ecological factors determined the distribution at both local and regional scales for A. nephilit. At a local scale, the species was found to preferentially occupy the outermost, illuminated, and warmer sectors of caves. Similarly, mean annual temperature, annual temperature range, and solar radiation were the most important drivers of its regional distribution. By investigating these two spatial scales simultaneously, we showed that it was possible to achieve an in-depth understanding of the environmental conditions that governs subterranean species distribution.

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