The role of environmental factors in affecting species distribution: A joint analysis of GBIF data and virtual species

A vigorous debate among ecologists concerns two contrasting theories of species distribution and diversity, the niche theory and the neutral theory. The 'continuum hypothesis', supported by modelling results, maintains that rather than being mutually exclusive, these theories represent two ends of a continuum. Here we develop the first empirical test capable of distinguishing between these three theories using continental-scale occurrence data from GBIF and a novel simulation framework of corresponding virtual species; application of this test to a set of 84 Australian mammals supported the continuum hypothesis over the two competing theories.

Repository contains:

- Manuscript supplementary information (Sp.Dis_F1000-Supplementary.pdf)
- All analysis data and code (analysis_data_and_code.zip)
- GBIF raw data in a DwC-A format (0054618-160910150852091.zip). Data is also publicly available via GBIF, with the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3poqxs

生态学领域学界正围绕物种分布与多样性的两种对立理论展开激烈学术争论，即生态位理论（niche theory）与中性理论（neutral theory）。由建模研究结果支撑的“连续统假说（continuum hypothesis）”指出，这两类理论并非互斥对立，而是构成了一条连续谱系的两个端点。本研究首次构建了可区分这三类理论的实证检验方案，依托全球生物多样性信息设施（Global Biodiversity Information Facility，GBIF）提供的大陆尺度物种出现数据，并配套使用了针对虚拟物种的全新模拟框架。将该检验方案应用于84种澳大利亚哺乳动物的数据集后，结果支持连续统假说，而非另外两种对立理论。

本数据集仓库包含以下内容：
- 论文补充材料（Sp.Dis_F1000-Supplementary.pdf）
- 全部分析数据与代码（analysis_data_and_code.zip）
- 采用达尔文核心归档（Darwin Core Archive，DwC-A）格式存储的GBIF原始数据（0054618-160910150852091.zip）。该数据亦可通过GBIF公开获取，对应DOI为：https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3poqxs