Disentangling the correlates of species and site contributions to beta diversity in dung beetle assemblages

Abstract

AimWe aimed to test whether contributions of individual species (SCBD) and contributions of single sites (LCBD) to overall beta diversity can be predicted by species metrics and species characteristics and also by community metrics and ecological variables, respectively.LocationA mainland‐island landscape in the southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest domain.MethodsDung beetles were sampled along 100 sampling units within four large forest fragments. We partitioned beta diversity into SCBD and LCBD aiming to explore their relationships to species and site characteristics, respectively. We then used a combination of multivariate methods and beta regression analyses to examine patterns in SCBD and LCBD. The occupancy, total abundance, niche position, niche breadth and biological traits of species were used as predictor variables for SCBD values. Community metrics, environmental and spatial variables, and temporal patterns in the beta diversity components of turnover and nestedness were used as predictor variables for LCDB values.ResultsWe found that SCBD was strongly related to various species characteristics, such as occupancy, abundance and niche position, but was not related to biological traits of species and niche breadth. In particular, occupancy and its quadratic term showed a very strong unimodal relationship with SCBD, suggesting that intermediate species in terms of site occupancy contribute most to beta diversity. LCBD was mostly explained by variation in species richness, with a negative relationship being detected. Litter height and large‐scale spatial variables were also important in explaining variation in LCBD.Main conclusionsSCBD and LCBD were highly predictably related to species occupancy and species richness, respectively. Environmental conditions and large‐scale spatial variables also correlated with LCBD values. Understanding the determinants of SCBD and LCBD may thus hold a key to various general ecological, bioassessment and conservation issues. Protecting sites with high LCBD values may be a suitable approach to practical biodiversity conservation.

Dynamic contributions of intermittent and perennial streams to fish beta diversity in dryland rivers

“…Supporting this conclusion, positive relationships between species contributions to beta diversity and site occupancy have recently been documented in several studies (e.g. Gavioli, Milardi, Castaldelli, Fano, & Soininen, 2019;Heino & Grönroos, 2017;da Silva, Hernández, & Heino, 2018). Rapid recolonization of formerly dry habitat is likely to occur after the cessation of drought (Lennox, Crook, Moyle, Struthers, & Cooke, 2019).…”

Knitting patterns of biodiversity, range size and body size in aquatic beetle faunas: significant relationships but slightly divergent drivers

“…Large LCBD values indicate high importance of the given province to the overall beta diversity. Recent applications of the LCBD approach are described by Tonkin et al (2016), Heino & Grönroos (2017), Vad et al (2017) and da Silva et al (2018).…”

“…Recently, Legendre and De Cáceres (2013) devised a method to decompose total beta diversity in the contributions of species or sites, where the relative ecological uniqueness of sites can be evaluated [i.e. Empirical research on the topic has thus far revealed that species richness is typically negatively correlated with LCBD across local ecological assemblages, although there is some variation around the relationship (Legendre & De Cáceres, 2013;, Vilmi et al, 2017, Landeiro et al, 2018, da Silva et al, 2018. Empirical research on the topic has thus far revealed that species richness is typically negatively correlated with LCBD across local ecological assemblages, although there is some variation around the relationship (Legendre & De Cáceres, 2013;, Vilmi et al, 2017, Landeiro et al, 2018, da Silva et al, 2018.…”

“…local contribution to beta diversity (LCBD)]. Empirical research on the topic has thus far revealed that species richness is typically negatively correlated with LCBD across local ecological assemblages, although there is some variation around the relationship (Legendre & De Cáceres, 2013;, Vilmi et al, 2017, Landeiro et al, 2018, da Silva et al, 2018. This relationship thus shows that species poor assemblages contribute the most to the regional beta diversity in various taxonomic groups.…”

Beach environmental DNA fills gaps in photographic biomonitoring to track spatiotemporal community turnover across 82 phyla

“…Samples exhibiting DNA swamping had higher Local Contributions to Beta Diversity (LCBD) than the rest (Table S10), a measure of the uniqueness of one sample compared to the rest of its group (Legendre and Caceres, 2013). LCBD has been increasingly valued for conservation applications where researchers recommend protecting sites with extreme low and high LCBD (da Silva et al, 2018). In the 18S results of eukaryotes, there were 20 sites with significant higher or lower LCBD compared to their neighbors, 7 of which met our criteria as swamped.…”