Climatic and vegetational drivers of insect beta diversity at the continental scale

Chesters, Douglas; Beckschäfer, Philip; Orr, Michael C.; Adamowicz, Sarah J.; Chun, Kwok Pan; Zhu, Chao

doi:10.1002/ece3.5795

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The ability of our model to capture the β-diversity patterns of Chilean wild bee assemblages measured as the percentage of explained deviance in our compositional model is 34%, which is lower than some other studies on insect groups (Chesters et al, 2019), but it is in line with results from areas with considerable turnover and limited well-sampled sites (Laidlaw et al, 2016). Stochastic, historical and evolutionary processes, which were not captured by our models, might also drive compositional dissimilarity (Wiens and Donoghue 2004, Ricklefs 2008, Warren et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Chilean bee diversity: Contrasting patterns of species and phylogenetic turnover along a large-scale ecological gradient

Marshall

Ascher

Villagra

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chile's isolation and varied climates have driven the evolution of a unique biodiversity with a high degree of endemism. The Mediterranean-type biome of Central Chile is one of 35 global biodiversity hotspots and has been highlighted as one of Chile's most endangered areas. It is threatened by anthropogenic land use change impacting the integrity of local biomes and associated species. This area holds the most extensive collections of the country with high endemicity regarding native bee species. Characterising habitat requirements of bees is a pressing priority to safeguard them and the ecosystem services they provide.We investigated broad-scale patterns of bee diversity using newly accessible expert-validated datasets comprising digitized specimen records from both Chilean and US collections and novel, expertvalidated type specimen data for the bees of Chile. We used a generalised dissimilarity modelling (GDM) approach to explore both compositional and phylogenetic β-diversity patterns across latitudinal, altitudinal, climate and habitat gradients in well-sampled bee assemblages in Central Chile. Using the GDM measures of increasing compositional and environmental dissimilarity we categorised and compared the most important drivers of these patterns and used them to classify 'wild bee ecoregions' (WBE) representing unique assemblages.Turnover of bee assemblages was explained primarily by latitudinal variation (proxy for climate) along Chile. However, temperature variations, precipitation and the presence of bare soil also significantly explained the observed patterns. In comparison, we observed less turnover in phylogenetic biodiversity corresponding to spatial gradients. We were able to develop six de novo ecoregions (WBE) all with distinct taxa, endemic lineages, and representative species. The WBE represent distinct spatial classifications but have similarities to existing biogeographical classifications, ecosystems and bioclimatic zones.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Chilean bee diversity: Contrasting patterns of species and phylogenetic turnover along a large-scale ecological gradient

Marshall

Ascher

Villagra

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although the effects of horizontal distance on species turnover have been examined at large spatial scales (kilometers; Chesters et al, 2019 ), it is often considered to be negligible at small scales (metres), and therefore has rarely been incorporated into studies on vertical stratification patterns (Roisin et al, 2006 ; Weiss et al, 2016 ). However, in complex ecosystems with high three‐dimensional structural heterogeneity, such as coral reefs and tropical rainforests, abiotic and biotic factors can vary greatly both horizontally and vertically across short distances (Reaka‐Kudla, 1997 ), driving small‐scale variation in community composition (Davies & Asner, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Species turnover in ant assemblages is greater horizontally than vertically in the world's tallest tropical forest

Xing

Hood

Dial

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abiotic and biotic factors structure species assembly in ecosystems both horizontally and vertically. However, the way community composition changes along comparable horizontal and vertical distances in complex three‐dimensional habitats, and the factors driving these patterns, remains poorly understood. By sampling ant assemblages at comparable vertical and horizontal spatial scales in a tropical rainforest, we tested hypotheses that predicted differences in vertical and horizontal turnover explained by different drivers in vertical and horizontal space. These drivers included environmental filtering, such as microclimate (temperature, humidity, and photosynthetic photon flux density) and microhabitat connectivity (leaf area), which are structured differently across vertical and horizontal space. We found that both ant abundance and richness decreased significantly with increasing vertical height. Although the dissimilarity between ant assemblages increased with vertical distance, indicating a clear distance‐decay pattern, the dissimilarity was higher horizontally where it appeared independent of distance. The pronounced horizontal and vertical structuring of ant assemblages across short distances is likely explained by a combination of microclimate and microhabitat connectivity. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering three‐dimensional spatial variation in local assemblages and reveal how highly diverse communities can be supported by complex habitats.

show abstract

“…Hence, additive heterogenization and subtractive homogenization cannot be found, when communities within one region are compared, as higher turnover mathematically is based on smaller species subsets. For insect communities, there are only a few β-diversity studies, mainly focusing on aquatic (Hepp et al 2012 ; McCreadie and Adler 2018 ) and tropical insect communities (Beck et al 2012 ; Kitching et al 2013 ; Novotny et al 2007 ) or conducted at much larger geographical scales (Chesters et al 2019 ). Smaller-scale variation in β-diversity, especially in fragmented conservation areas, however, is until today only poorly understood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From forest to fragment: compositional differences inside coastal forest moth assemblages and their environmental correlates

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Patterns of β-diversity can provide insight into forces shaping community assembly. We analyzed species-rich insect assemblages in two reserve fragments that had once been part of one contiguous Mediterranean coastal pine forest. Local environments are still similar across both fragments, but their landscape context differs strongly, with one surrounded by intense agricultural land, while the other neighbors the urbanized area of Ravenna. Using 23,870 light-trap records of 392 moth species, and multiple local and landscape metrics, we compared the relative importance of habitat- versus landscape-scale environmental factors for shaping small-scale variation in differentiation and proportional insect β-diversity across 30 sites per reserve. Moth assemblage composition differed substantially between fragments, most likely due to ecological drift and landscape-scale variation. For proportional β-diversity, especially local forest structure was important. At well-developed forest sites, additive homogenization could be observed, whereas the lack of typical forest species at dry, dense, and younger forest sites increased species turnover (subtractive heterogenization). For differentiation β-diversity, local and landscape-scale factors were equally important in both reserves. At the landscape-scale (500 m radius around light-trapping sites) the proximity to urban areas and the fraction of human-altered land were most important. At the habitat scale, gradients in soil humidity, nutrient levels and forest structure mattered most, whereas plant diversity had very little explanatory power. Overall, landscape-scale anthropogenic alterations had major effects on moth communities inside the two conservation areas. Yet, even for these parts of one formerly contiguous forest trajectories in community change were remarkably idiosyncratic.

show abstract

Climatic and vegetational drivers of insect beta diversity at the continental scale

Cited by 18 publications

References 70 publications

Chilean bee diversity: Contrasting patterns of species and phylogenetic turnover along a large-scale ecological gradient

Chilean bee diversity: Contrasting patterns of species and phylogenetic turnover along a large-scale ecological gradient

Species turnover in ant assemblages is greater horizontally than vertically in the world's tallest tropical forest

From forest to fragment: compositional differences inside coastal forest moth assemblages and their environmental correlates

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About