Odonata metacommunity structure in northern ecosystems is driven by temperature and latitude

Abstract

The metacommunity concept, defined as a set of local communities connected by species dispersal, provides deep understanding of large‐scale ecological processes. The elements of the metacommunity structure (EMS) framework use occurrence data to differentiate among different patterns (i.e., checkerboard, nestedness, species turnover). Metacommunities of tropical Odonata show species turnover following latitude and temperature gradients but there are no such large‐scale studies for other regions. We performed EMS analysis with data for the Odonata of British Columbia, Canada, testing the role of five environmental variables (temperature, latitude, altitude, precipitation, landcover typology) in structuring the metacommunities and their turnover. The suborder Anisoptera drives the general pattern, with the communities showing a Clementsian‐type response (groups of species that replace each other along the environmental gradients) following temperature and latitude ordering. The Clementsian pattern determined by site temperatures reflects the turnover from a group of cold‐adapted species to one of warm‐adapted species, separated by many species with more generalised temperature requirements. Similarly, the Clementsian pattern associated with the latitude gradient indicates the substitution of a low‐latitude group in the south with a high‐latitude group in the north. The sites ordered by landcover did not show significant coherence and turnover. In a macro‐scale framework, Odonata species assemblages seem to be sensitive to the climatic and geographic variables of local sites (i.e., temperature and latitude), regardless of the surrounding habitat typology. The role of such variables in shaping the assembly of Odonata communities should be considered in large‐scale management and conservation projects.

Sampling completeness changes perceptions of continental scale climate–species richness relationships in odonates

“…For instance, large‐scale odonate diversity is primarily driven by temperature in the Western Palearctic (Pinkert et al., 2018) and the Afrotropics (Pinkert et al., 2020). The distribution of odonates in the boreal ecosystems of British Columbia, in Canada, is structured by a temperature gradient, ranging from cold‐adapted species in one gradient extremes to warm‐adapted species on the opposed extreme (Cerini et al., 2021). In addition, some studies carried out in the Amazon suggest that temperature drives both local species richness (Alves‐Martins, Brasil, et al., 2019) and species distributions (Alves‐Martins, Calatayud, et al., 2019).…”

Functional traits predict species co‐occurrence patterns in a North American Odonata metacommunity

“…In general, the correlations were very weak, but mostly negative, supporting a slightly more important role of environmental filtering over interactions (Figures 1 and 4). On the one hand, this result could be ascribed to a selection of habitat variables for the HMSC not accurately representing the environmental features acting as possible assembly filters (but see Bried & Siepielski, 2018; Cerini et al, 2021); thus, the co‐occurrence patterns would still be an outcome produced by macro‐environmental constraints not directly reflected in the species traits. Nonetheless, it is worth emphasizing that the environmental variables used in our model made up for a good portion of the explained variance, thus suggesting that the obtained residual co‐occurrence might indeed be a measure not dependent on macroscale habitat filtering.…”

Local environmental conditions influence species replacement in Great Lakes interdunal wetland macroinvertebrate communities

“…For example, Erythemis (putative E. simplicicollis ), the only species of a primarily Neotropical genus in Michigan, was associated with SHNA in the southern ecoregion and Pantala (two possible species, both migratory) was associated with the southern ecoregion. Odonates are strong flyers and are known to travel great distances (Batzer & Wissinger, 1996), but are sensitive to local temperature and latitude (Cerini et al, 2021) constraining assemblages. In addition, habitat selection by adult odonates may influence larval distribution and performance.…”