Is elevation a strong environmental filter? Combining taxonomy, functional traits and phylogeny of butterflies in a tropical mountain

Abstract

Environmental filters select species that tolerate and respond to habitat conditions similarly. By combining taxonomy, functional traits and phylogeny, we aimed to understand the spatial distribution of a tropical butterfly community, evaluating whether elevation acts as an environmental filter strong enough to select flight‐related traits. Frugivorous and nectarivorous butterflies were sampled with nets at seven altitudinal bands (800–1400 m) in four sampling periods. We tested seven flight‐related traits (wing length, width, and area; thorax volume; wing:thorax ratio [WTR]length, WTRwidth and WTRarea) and incorporated the effects of phylogeny in the relationships among these traits and with elevation. Butterfly diversity decreased with increased elevation, and four traits exhibited larger values at higher elevations: wing length, width, area and WTRarea. This suggests that butterflies tended to have smaller wings and robust bodies at lower elevations, and larger wings with slender bodies at higher elevations, possibly related to flight speed or wind conditions. Although the phylogenetic relatedness did not exert significant weight in the traits and elevation, we found indication of phylogenetic conservatism of wing area and WTR. Butterflies in mountains experience a strong selection by several environmental filters related to flight performance, and our study demonstrated a robust relationship between elevation, flight‐related traits and species distribution. These relationships occurred regardless of phylogenetic relatedness, but most traits are conserved and exhibit resemblance in the phylogenetic lineages of these species. These findings suggest an influence of a widespread filter promoted by the elevational gradient with convergent trait evolution.

Temperature dissimilarity drives flower–visitor interaction turnover across elevation in the Mexican Transition Zone

“…Moreover, floral visitors that live in cold environments can be functionally different from those found at warmer low elevations as they are adapted to fly under cold conditions (e.g. development of bigger wings; Henriques et al, 2022) which may also increase the observed interaction dissimilarity. In the case of plants, one study has shown that floral visitors change their feeding behaviours based on flower temperature, selecting cooler plants in high temperatures and warmer plants in cooler temperatures (Norgate et al, 2010).…”

“…In the case of floral visitors and plants, their species richness decreases and their species composition changes with increasing elevation, a trend mainly explained by a reduction in temperature at high elevations and by variations in species abundance across space (Classen et al, 2015; Henriques et al, 2022; Peters et al, 2016). Moreover, when focusing on interactions between floral visitors and plants across elevational gradients, many studies have described how the local organization of their interaction networks vary without considering the environmental variation inherent to mountain systems (e.g.…”

Reduced palatability, fast flight, and tails: Decoding the defence arsenal of Eudaminae skipper butterflies in a Neotropical locality

“…and Drephalys helixus ). While large butterflies are typically found on tropical hill tops (Henriques et al, 2022), the predicted fast flights of Eudaminae on the hilltop environment might be explained by the required powered flight due to more windy conditions compared to other habitats in the study location. Alternatively, the bird community in this habitat might differ from nearby forest and open environments, potentially exposing them to high predation pressure from agile insectivorous birds.…”

Human Disturbance and Geometric Constraints Drive Small Mammal Diversity and Community Structure along an Elevational Gradient in Eastern China

“…Instead, trait convergence may be the main reason for the functional clustering in Qingliang Mountain. Such convergence of traits generally results from strong environmental filtering necessitating species exploiting similar niches to have trait plasticity, which may be independent of common phylogenetic ancestry [ 58 , 59 ].…”

“…This pattern suggests that trait and phylogenetic weights may not be fixedly associated [ 58 ], implying that relying solely on phylogenetic or functional dimensions to reveal community structure is inefficient. Combining the functional and phylogenetic effects is crucial to better understanding community assembly processes [ 24 , 59 ].…”