Distance–decay differs among vertical strata in a tropical rainforest

Basham, Edmund W.; Seidl, Christa M.; Andriamahohatra, Lydou R.; Oliveira, Brunno F.; Scheffers, Brett R.

doi:10.1111/1365-2656.12902

Cited by 30 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Complementarily, we found that the spatial dissimilarity of ant community composition was slightly higher in the litter than in the canopy. Indeed, it is known that the species dissimilarity concerning geographic distances could be dependent on which vertical strata the community live, for instance, for amphibians (Basham et al., 2019). Importantly, our study provides data over the effect of vertical stratification at the plot scale, rather than long geographic distances (e.g., Silva et al., 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal dynamics of the ant community in a dry forest differ by vertical strata but not by successional stage

et al. 2021

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Ants are diverse and ecologically important organisms in tropical forests, where their spatiotemporal distribution can be highly complex. This complexity arises mainly from marked differences in microclimatic conditions and resource availability through space and time that is even more evident in highly seasonal environments, such as tropical dry forests. However, it is unclear how seasonality interacts with other factors that might shape temporal variation of ant composition (β-diversity), like vertical strata and habitat disturbance. Our goal was to examine the potential influence of vertical stratification and the successional stage on the spatiotemporal variation of a tropical dry forest's ant species composition. We assessed whether species turnover or nestedness was the main component determining the spatiotemporal β-diversity of ant communities across the canopy and litter strata. We sampled canopy and litter ants in ten plots, half in the early and half on the late stage of secondary succession at four times, twice in wet and twice in dry season. A high species turnover defined the spatiotemporal β-diversity of canopy and litter ant communities across years and seasons in our focal dry forests. Importantly, the temporal ant species composition was much more stable in the canopy than in the litter. Moreover, we found that the ant community's temporal dynamics was consistently high across successional stages, not differing in the temporal β-diversity between early and late succession. Our results provide valuable insights into the potential underlying causes of community assembly and spatiotemporal dynamics in seasonal habitats, like the highly threatened and diverse tropical dry forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the ant community in a dry forest differ by vertical strata but not by successional stage

et al. 2021

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“…We surveyed for frogs during the wet season (April-December) and dry season (January-March; Figure S2). Using survey methods in Scheffers et al (2013) and Basham et al (2018), we conducted vertical, ground-to-canopy surveys for amphibians, with each survey centred on a single canopy tree. Tree selection was randomized;…”

Section: Vertical Stratification Of Amphibiansmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, diverse factors all stratify to some degree ranging from leaf area and vegetation connectivity (Arruda et al, 2016;Clark, Olivas, Oberbauer, Clark, & Ryan, 2008) to air turbulence and wind speed (Parker, 1995;Poggi, Porporato, Ridolfi, Albertson, & Katul, 2004). As a result, there are well-documented patterns showing biological communities, across diverse taxa, being structured by these climate and resource gradients in vertical space (Ashton et al, 2016;Basham, Seidl, Andriamahohatra, Oliveira, & Scheffers, 2018;Beaulieu et al, 2010;Chmel, Riegert, Paul, & Novotný, 2016;De Frenne et al, 2019;Schleuning et al, 2011;Stork, Stone, & Sam, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical stratification collapses under seasonal shifts in climate

Basham

Scheffers

2020

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Tropical forests are vertically complex, and offer unique niche opportunities in the form of climate, habitat and resource gradients from ground to canopy. Rainforest species organize within this vertical spatial gradient and recent macroecological research suggests that the highest levels of vertical stratification occur in structurally complex and climatically stable tropical rainforests. However, although the classical view of the tropics is that of aseasonality, particularly in temperature, there is strong seasonality in rainfall. Thus, we predict considerable variation in vertical stratification in time, characterized by a seasonal restructuring of communities across vertical space. Location Sierra Llorona, Colón Province, Panama. Taxon Amphibians. Methods We performed 121 ground‐to‐canopy surveys across the wet and dry seasons for amphibians. Using a bootstrap simulation method we calculated species‐specific and community‐wide vertical height and abundance shifts between seasons. Separately, we tested the importance of vertical height and season on the vertical distribution of species using a redundancy analysis, and employed linear models to explore turnover in species composition across vertical height between seasons. Results Our results show a clear downward shift of 5 m in height in amphibian communities from the wet season to dry season. We also observe significant changes in species composition across vertical strata in both seasons, driven primarily by nestedness in the dry season (loss of species over height) and genuine turnover in the wet season (loss and addition of species over height). Main conclusions The exploitation of canopy microhabitats and resources in the wet season resulted in complex patterns of stratification, whereas drying flattened the distribution and simplified the composition of arboreal communities. As such, pattern and process in the vertical dimension is not static in time but rather exists as a dichotomy with inverse patterns between wet and dry seasons. Complex, multidimensional distributions of diverse rainforest communities can be simplified by climatic constraints – an important consideration as anthropogenic climate change increases the magnitude of seasonal swings in temperature and precipitation.

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“…Distance–decay relationships are well documented in a multitude of plant and animal communities (e.g., multiple aquatic taxa, Astorga et al., 2012; tropical amphibians, Basham et al., 2019; multiple taxa, Soininen et al., 2007; urban plants, Sorte et al., 2008). Nonetheless, these relationships are of particular interest to microbial ecologists, because microorganisms were assumed to have ubiquitous distributions for several reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What drives study‐dependent differences in distance–decay relationships of microbial communities?

Clark

Underwood

McGenity

et al. 2021

Global Ecol. Biogeogr.

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Aim Ecological communities that exist closer together in space are generally more compositionally similar than those far apart, as defined by the distance–decay of similarity relationship. However, recent research has revealed substantial variability in the distance–decay relationships of microbial communities between studies of different taxonomic groups, ecosystems and spatial scales and between those using different molecular methodologies (e.g., high‐throughput sequencing versus molecular fingerprinting). Here, we test how these factors influence the strength of microbial distance–decay relationships, in order to draw generalizations about how microbial β‐diversity scales with space. Location Global. Time period Studies published between 2005 and 2019 (inclusive). Major taxa studied Bacteria, Archaea and microbial Eukarya. Methods We conducted a meta‐analysis of microbial distance–decay relationships, using the Mantel correlation coefficient as a measure of the strength of distance–decay relationships. Our final dataset consisted of 452 data points, varying in environmental/ecological context or methodological approaches, and we used linear models to test the effects of each variable. Results Both ecological and methodological factors had significant impacts on the strength of microbial distance–decay relationships. Specifically, the strength of these relationships varied between environments and habitats, with soils showing significantly weaker distance–decay relationships than other habitats, whereas increasing spatial extents had no effect. Methodological factors, such as sequencing depth, were positively related to the strength of distance–decay relationships, and choice of dissimilarity metric was also important, with phylogenetic metrics generally giving weaker distance–decay relationships than binary or abundance‐based indices. Main conclusions We conclude that widely studied microbial biogeographical patterns, such as the distance–decay relationship, vary by ecological context but are primarily distorted by methodological choices. Consequently, we suggest that by linking methodological approaches appropriately to the ecological context of a study, we can progress towards generalizable biogeographical relationships in microbial ecology.

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Distance–decay differs among vertical strata in a tropical rainforest

Cited by 30 publications

References 73 publications

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the ant community in a dry forest differ by vertical strata but not by successional stage

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the ant community in a dry forest differ by vertical strata but not by successional stage

Vertical stratification collapses under seasonal shifts in climate

What drives study‐dependent differences in distance–decay relationships of microbial communities?

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