Data from: Ecological fidelity of functional traits based on species presence-absence in a modern mammalian bone assemblage (Amboseli, Kenya)

Comparisons between modern death assemblages and their source communities have demonstrated fidelity to species diversity across a variety of environments and taxonomic groups. However, differential species preservation and collection (including body-size bias) in both modern and fossil death assemblages may still skew the representation of other important ecological characteristics. Here, we move beyond live-dead taxonomic fidelity and focus on the recovery of functional ecology (how species interact with their ecosystem) at the community level for a diverse non-volant mammal community (87 species; Amboseli, Kenya). We use published literature to characterize species, using four functional traits and their associated categorical attributes (i) dietary mode (11 attributes; e.g., browser, grazer), (ii) preferred feeding habitat (16 attributes; e.g., grassland, woodland), (iii) preferred sheltering habitat (17 attributes; e.g., grassland, underground cavity), and (iv) activity time (7 attributes; e.g., diurnal, nocturnal, nocturnally dominated crepuscular). For each functional ecological trait we compare the death assemblage's recovered richness and abundance structure of constituent functional attributes with those of the source community, using Jaccard similarity, Spearman's rho, and the Probability of Interspecific Encounter (evenness). We use Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate whether these empirical comparisons are significantly different from expectations calculated from randomized sampling of species from the source community. Results indicate that although the Amboseli death assemblage is significantly overrepresented by large-bodied species relative to the Amboseli source community, it captures many functional dimensions of the ecosystem within expectations of a randomized collection of species. Additional resampling simulations and logistic regressions further illustrate that the size bias inherent to the Amboseli death assemblage is not a major driver of deviations between the functional ecological properties of the death assemblage and its source community. Finally, the Amboseli death assemblage also enhances our understanding of the mammal community by adding nine species and two functional attributes previously unknown from the ecosystem.

现代死亡群集（death assemblage）与其源群落之间的对比研究已证实，在多种环境与分类群中，其物种多样性具有良好保真度。然而，现代与化石死亡群集在物种保存与采集过程中存在的差异性（包括体型偏差），仍可能扭曲其他重要生态特征的呈现情况。本研究跳出死活类群保真度的研究框架，聚焦肯尼亚安博塞利（Amboseli）一处包含87个物种的多样非飞行哺乳类群落，解析群落尺度下的功能生态学（即物种与其生态系统的相互作用方式）恢复情况。我们通过已发表文献对物种进行表征，选取四类功能性状及其对应的分类属性：(1) 摄食模式（共11类属性，例如食叶者、放牧者）；(2) 偏好摄食生境（共16类属性，例如草原、林地）；(3) 偏好栖息生境（共17类属性，例如草原、地下洞穴）；(4) 活动时间（共7类属性，例如昼行、夜行、以夜间为主的晨昏活动）。针对每一项功能生态性状，我们采用雅卡尔相似度（Jaccard similarity）、斯皮尔曼秩相关系数（Spearman's rho）以及种间相遇概率（即均匀度），对比死亡群集所恢复的功能属性丰富度与多度结构，及其与源群落的对应特征。我们借助蒙特卡洛（Monte Carlo）模拟，评估上述经验对比结果是否与从源群落中随机抽取物种所得到的预期值存在显著差异。研究结果显示，尽管相较于安博塞利源群落，安博塞利死亡群集显著富集了体型较大的物种，但其所捕捉到的生态系统诸多功能维度，仍处于随机抽取物种的预期范围内。额外的重采样模拟与逻辑回归分析进一步表明，安博塞利死亡群集固有的体型偏差，并非导致死亡群集与源群落功能生态特征出现偏离的主要驱动因素。最后，安博塞利死亡群集还新增了该生态系统此前未被记录的9个物种与2项功能属性，从而加深了我们对该哺乳类群落的认知。