Data from: A new integrative framework for large-scale assessments of biodiversity and community dynamics, using littoral gastropods and crabs of British Columbia, Canada

Improving our understanding of species responses to environmental changes is an important contribution ecologists can make to facilitate effective management decisions. Novel synthetic approaches to assessing biodiversity and ecosystem integrity are needed, ideally including all species living in a community and the dynamics defining their ecological relationships. Here we present and apply an integrative approach that links high-throughput, multi-character taxonomy with community ecology. The overall purpose is to enable the coupling of biodiversity assessments with investigations into the nature of ecological interactions in a community-level data set. We collected 1,195 gastropods and crabs in British Columbia. First, the General mixed Yule-coalescent (GMYC) and the Poisson Tree Processes (PTP) methods for proposing primary species-hypotheses based on cox1 sequences were evaluated against an integrative taxonomic framework. We then used data on the geographic distribution of delineated species to test species co-occurrence patterns for non-randomness using community-wide and pairwise approaches. Results showed that PTP generally outperformed GMYC and thus constitutes a more effective option for producing species-hypotheses in community-level datasets. Non-random species co-occurrence patterns indicative of ecological relationships or habitat preferences were observed for grazer gastropods, whereas assemblages of opportunistic omnivorous gastropods and crabs appeared influenced by random processes. Species-pair associations were consistent with current ecological knowledge, thus suggesting that applying community assembly within a large taxonomical framework constitutes a valuable tool for assessing ecological interactions. Combining phylogenetic, morphological and co-occurrence data enabled an integrated view of communities, providing both a conceptual and pragmatic framework for biodiversity assessments and investigations into community dynamics.加深对物种响应环境变化机制的认知，是生态学家为助力高效生态管理决策所能作出的重要学术贡献。当前亟需研发用于评估生物多样性与生态系统完整性的新型综合研究方法，理想的研究框架应涵盖群落内所有物种类群，以及塑造其生态互作关系的动态过程。本研究提出并应用了一种整合性研究方法，将高通量多特征分类学与群落生态学相结合。其核心目标在于实现生物多样性评估与群落尺度数据集内生态互作本质研究的有机耦合。研究团队在不列颠哥伦比亚省采集了1195号腹足类与蟹类标本。首先，本研究以整合分类学框架为参照标准，评估了基于cox1（细胞色素c氧化酶亚基I）序列提出初级物种类群假设的两种方法：广义混合Yule-溯祖模型（General mixed Yule-coalescent, GMYC）与泊松树过程模型（Poisson Tree Processes, PTP）。随后，研究人员基于划定物种类群的地理分布数据，采用群落水平与物种对两种分析方法，检验物种共存模式是否存在非随机性。研究结果显示，泊松树过程模型（PTP）的整体表现优于广义混合Yule-溯祖模型（GMYC），因此在群落尺度数据集的物种类群假设生成任务中，PTP是更为高效的可选方案。植食性腹足类呈现出能够反映生态关联或生境偏好的非随机物种共存模式，而机会主义杂食性腹足类与蟹类的类群组合则似乎受随机过程主导。物种对之间的关联模式与当前生态学认知相符，这表明在大型分类学框架下开展群落组装研究，是评估生态互作关系的宝贵工具。整合系统发育、形态学与物种共存数据，能够实现对群落的整体性认知，同时为生物多样性评估及群落动态研究提供兼具理论性与实用性的研究框架。