Sharing the space: coexistence among terrestrial predators in Neotropical caves

Resende, Leonardo Palloni Accetti; Bichuette, Maria Elina

doi:10.1080/00222933.2016.1193641

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The occurrence of six species of Opiliones in a single cave (Gonyleptidae family) is similar to ob- Terrestrial fauna of the largest granitic cave from Southern Hemisphere, southeastern Brazil: A neglected habitat served in other studies for limestone caves in Minas Gerais state (five species, four Gonyleptidae) (Resende and Bichuette, 2016) and in Goiás state (eight species, three Gonyleptidae) . It is noteworthy that in these studies it was necessary at least four sampling occasions to reach that richness of opilionids and other species records, which indicates that the number of samplings is directed related to the diversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Terrestrial fauna of the largest granitic cave from Southern Hemisphere, southeastern Brazil: A neglected habitat

Bichuette¹,

Nascimento²,

Schimonsky³

et al. 2017

Neotropical Biology and Conservation

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Studies focusing cave fauna on granitic caves are relatively rare when compared to carbonatic ones and no one considered replicas in the sampling to test fauna distribution patterns. We describe the terrestrial fauna of Riacho Subterrâneo cave through four sampling occasions (replicas) in different seasons. We analyzed seasonality and substrate preference of terrestrial invertebrates and discussed the importance of this neglected habitat as a refuge for fauna. Furthermore, we stressed the importance of the replicas in order to detect subterranean biodiversity patterns. The cave represents the greatest richness considering igneous rocks in Brazil (199 taxa) and has an important role as refuge for epigean fauna, besides the maintenance of troglophilic and trogloxene populations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Terrestrial fauna of the largest granitic cave from Southern Hemisphere, southeastern Brazil: A neglected habitat

Bichuette¹,

Nascimento²,

Schimonsky³

et al. 2017

Neotropical Biology and Conservation

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“…A mosaic structure of subterranean microhabitats thereby provides a series of distinct experimental settings defined by distinct habitat‐filtering properties (Trontelj, Blejec, & Fišer, ). Third, subterranean communities are simpler then surface ones (Gibert & Deharveng, ), being composed of few species that mainly compete for space (Bourne, ; Mammola, Piano, & Isaia, ; Resende & Bichuette, ) and food resources (MacAvoy, Braciszewski, Tengi, & Fong, ; Novak et al, ). In summary, this is a simple, ecologically stable and highly replicated setting where the relative contribution of phylogeny, competition and filtering in driving ecological specialization should be more easily quantifiable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental filtering and convergent evolution determine the ecological specialization of subterranean spiders

et al. 2020

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1. Ecological specialization is an important mechanism enhancing species coexistence within a given community. Yet, unravelling the effect of multiple selective evolutionary and ecological factors leading the process of specialization remains a key challenge in ecology. Subterranean habitats provide highly replicated experimental arenas in which to disentangle the relative contribution of evolutionary history (convergent evolution vs. character displacement) and ecological setting (environmental filtering vs. competitive exclusion) in driving community assembly.2. We tested alternative hypotheses about the emergence of ecological specialization using the radiation of a lineage of sheet-weaver cave-dwelling spiders as model system. We observed that at the local scale, a differential specialization to cave microhabitats generally parallels moderate levels of morphological similarity and close phylogenetic relatedness among species. Conversely, geographic distance contributed little in explaining microhabitat occupation, possibly mirroring a limited role of competitive exclusion. Yet, compared to non-coexisting species, co-occurring species adapted to different microhabitats showed lower morphological niche overlap (i.e. higher dissimilarity) and deeper genetic distance.3. The framework here developed suggests that in the subterranean domain, habitat specialization is primarily driven by environmental filtering, secondarily by convergent evolution, and only marginally by character displacement or competitive exclusion. This pattern results in the establishment of replicated communities across geographical space, composed by ecologically equivalent species. Such process of community assembly well explains the numerous adaptive radiations observed in subterranean habitats, an eco-evolutionary pattern well documented in oceanic islands or mountain summit communities. K E Y W O R D S biotic interactions, cave, functional traits, n-dimensional hypervolume, niche space, phenotypic variability, subterranean biology, Western Italian Alps | 1065 Functional Ecology MAMMOLA et AL. S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Mammola S, Arnedo MA, Fišer C, Cardoso P, Dejanaz AJ, Isaia M. Environmental filtering and convergent evolution determine the ecological specialization of subterranean spiders.

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“…Whether the spatial distribution of spider species is driven by competition alone, or by its combination with other driving forces-e.g. trophic availability, microclimatic conditionscoexisting species tend to occupy distinct areas of the cave, thus reducing niche overlaps [5,12,98,102]. Other documented mechanisms enhancing niche partitioning include the trophic niche differentiation [10], spatial segregation [103], temporal niche shifts [10] and conditional differentiation [11].…”

Section: (C) Cave Communities and Interspecific Competitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiders in caves

Mammola

Isaia

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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World experts of different disciplines, from molecular biology to macroecology, recognize the value of cave ecosystems as ideal ecological and evolutionary laboratories. Among other subterranean taxa, spiders stand out as intriguing model organisms for their ecological role of top predators, their unique adaptations to the hypogean medium and their sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance. As the description of the first eyeless spider (Stalita taenaria), an array of papers on subterranean spider biology, ecology and evolution has been published, but a comprehensive review on these topics is still lacking. We provide a general overview of the spider families recorded in hypogean habitats worldwide, we review the different adaptations of hypogean spiders to subterranean life, and we summarize the information gathered so far about their origin, population structure, ecology and conservation status. Finally, we point out the limits of the knowledge we currently have regarding hypogean spiders, aiming to stimulate future research. BackgroundReceiving poor energy inputs and being light-deficient, caves are generally considered extreme environments, characterized by low abundance and diversity of organisms. Because of their extraordinary adaptations, cave-dwelling animals offer unique study opportunities for pushing forward our current understanding of evolutionary and ecological processes [1,2]. Among other subterranean taxa, spiders are distinctive for their ecological role of top predators [3][4][5], and for the variety of functional adaptations [6], therefore representing undervalued models for the understanding the evolution of life in extreme habitats. Accordingly, subterranean spiders have served as models for physiological [7][8][9], ecological [4,5,[10][11][12], ethological [13,14] and biogeographic studies [15][16][17], among others.However, compared with other animal groups, the potential of spiders as model organisms is still under-expressed. It is possible that the paucity of studies is related to the difficulty of working in subterranean habitats and to the rarity of most subterranean species, which pose major impediments to data collection and analysis. In addition, the general lack of a state of the art on subterranean spider biology, ecology and evolution conceivably hinders advances in knowledge. In this review, we present a collection of information about spiders colonizing subterranean habitats-especially caves-and discuss their relevance in the understanding of cave life evolution and the ecology of subterranean animal communities. (a) Terminology and acronymsWe use the term troglobiomorphism to distinguish the suite of adaptations, especially morphological, to subterranean life [18]. Despite the fact that ecological categorizations often oversimplify real cases and boundaries between categories can be vague, for the sake of this review, we use the traditional speleobiological nomenclature [19] to indicate ecological distributions of species:(1) a troglobiont is strongly bound to hypogean habitats...

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Sharing the space: coexistence among terrestrial predators in Neotropical caves

Cited by 15 publications

References 47 publications

Terrestrial fauna of the largest granitic cave from Southern Hemisphere, southeastern Brazil: A neglected habitat

Terrestrial fauna of the largest granitic cave from Southern Hemisphere, southeastern Brazil: A neglected habitat

Environmental filtering and convergent evolution determine the ecological specialization of subterranean spiders

Spiders in caves

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