Data from: Ecological strategies in stable and disturbed environments depend on species specialisation

Ecological strategies are integral to understanding species survival in different environments. However, how habitat specialisation is involved in such strategies is not fully understood, particularly in heterogeneous and disturbed environments. Here, we studied the trait associations between specialisation, dispersal ability, competitiveness, reproductive investment and survival rate in a spatially explicit metacommunity model under various disturbance rates. Though no unique trait values were associated with specialisation, relationships were uncovered depending on environmental factors. We found strong trait associations mainly for generalist species, while specialist species exhibited a larger range of trait combinations. Trait associations were driven first by the disturbance rate and second by species’ dispersal ability and generation overlap. With disturbance, low dispersal ability was strongly selected against, for specialists as well as for generalists. Our results demonstrate that habitat specialisation is critical for the emergence of trait strategies in metacommunities and that disturbance in interaction with dispersal ability limits not only the range of trait values but also the type of possible trait associations.

生态策略是解析不同环境中物种生存机制不可或缺的核心内容。然而，生境特化（habitat specialisation）如何参与这类生态策略的形成尚未被完全阐明，尤其是在异质性受干扰环境中。本研究基于不同干扰率下的空间显式集合群落模型（spatially explicit metacommunity model），探究了特化程度、扩散能力（dispersal ability）、竞争能力（competitiveness）、繁殖投入（reproductive investment）与存活率（survival rate）之间的性状关联（trait associations）。尽管未发现与生境特化直接对应的单一性状取值，但研究揭示其关联模式会随环境因子变化而存在差异。结果显示，性状关联主要在广适性物种（generalist species）中表现显著，而特化物种（specialist species）则展现出更广范围的性状组合。性状关联的驱动因素依次为干扰率、物种扩散能力与世代重叠（generation overlap）。在干扰条件下，无论特化物种还是广适性物种，低扩散能力均会被强烈淘汰。本研究结果表明，生境特化是集合群落中性状策略形成的关键；干扰与扩散能力的协同作用，不仅限制了性状取值的范围，同时也制约了潜在性状关联的类型。