Taxonomic and functional β-diversity patterns reveal random assembly rules in nearshore fish assemblages

Understanding the relative roles of local environmental, geo‐climatic and spatial factors for taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic β‐diversity of stream fishes in a large basin, Northeast China

“…Studying the contribution of β ‐diversity from different facets is crucial to analyzing the causality of potential biodiversity processes (Gianuca et al, 2017 ; Taylor, 2010 ; Villeger et al, 2013 ). The results showed that functional β ‐diversity was higher than taxonomic and phylogenetic β ‐diversity (0.686 vs. 0.612 vs. 0.490), this was not our expectation but is consistent with recent findings on fish (Araujo et al, 2019 ; Jia et al, 2020 ). High functional β ‐diversity (Figure 2 ) may have the following two reasons: (i) low abundance of Hun‐Tai river fish species compared with algae and macrobenthos (Qu et al, 2019 ; Wu et al, 2021 ), species with substantial overlap between combinations (e.g., certain common species occur multiple times in fish assemblages); (ii) fish of the same genus may have different functional traits.…”

“…In addition, we found that turnover dominates fish taxonomic and phylogenetic β ‐diversity, suggesting the predominance of species replacement over species loss (Araujo et al, 2019 ). Similar patterns have been observed in previous studies on fish (Liu & Wang, 2018 ; Lopez‐Delgado et al, 2020 ).…”

“…For example, two fishes of the same genus ( Etheostoma flabellare and E. olmstedi ) have interspecific differences in performance (Carlisle et al, 2008 ). Compared with taxonomic and phylogenetic facets, higher functional β ‐diversity shows that different species often play distinct functions in spatial environment combination (Araujo et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Compared with taxonomic and phylogenetic facets, higher functional β-diversity shows that different species often play distinct functions in spatial environment combination (Araujo et al, 2019).…”

“…Identifying the mechanisms that drive local environmental and intercommunity change is at the heart of community ecology (Baselga, 2010 ; Padial et al, 2014 ; Perez Rocha et al, 2018 ). Several previous studies have pointed out that local environmental ( Local ) variables are the main structural factors influencing fish communities (Araujo et al, 2019 ; Leprieur et al, 2012 ; Lopez‐Delgado et al, 2020 ). But, in recent years, more scholars have found that river biodiversity patterns are driven by a variety of abiotic factors (Goncalves et al, 2020 ; Grenouillet et al, 2008 ; Vardakas et al, 2020 ).…”