Data from: Predicting biotic interactions and their variability in a changing environment

Global environmental change is altering the patterns of biodiversity worldwide. Observation and theory suggest that species' distributions and abundances depend on a suite of processes, notably abiotic filtering and biotic interactions, both of which are constrained by species' phylogenetic history. Models predicting species distribution have historically mostly considered abiotic filtering and are only starting to integrate biotic interaction. However, using information on present interactions to forecast the future of biodiversity supposes that biotic interactions will not change when species are confronted with new environments. Using bacterial microcosms, we illustrate how biotic interactions can vary along an environmental gradient and how this variability can depend on the phylogenetic distance between interacting species.全球环境变化正在重塑全球范围内的生物多样性格局。观测与理论均表明，物种的分布与丰度取决于一系列生态过程，其中尤以非生物过滤（abiotic filtering）与生物相互作用（biotic interactions）最为关键，而这两类过程均受物种系统发育历史（phylogenetic history）的约束。历来用于预测物种分布的模型大多仅考虑了非生物过滤过程，直至近年才开始尝试整合生物相互作用因素。然而，若依托当前的物种相互作用信息来预测生物多样性的未来走向，则默认了当物种面临全新环境时，其生物相互作用不会发生改变。本研究借助细菌微宇宙（bacterial microcosms）实验系统，展示了生物相互作用如何沿环境梯度发生变化，以及这种变化如何取决于相互作用物种之间的系统发育距离。