Data from: Phylogeny, traits and biodiversity of a neotropical bat assemblage: close relatives show similar responses to local deforestation

If species’ evolutionary pasts predetermine their responses to evolutionarily novel stressors, then phylogeny could predict species survival in an increasingly human-dominated world. To understand the role of phylogenetic relatedness in structuring responses to rapid environmental change, we focused on assemblages of Neotropical bats, an ecologically diverse and functionally important group. We examined how taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity shift between tropical forest and farmland. We then explored the importance of evolutionary history by ascertaining whether close relatives share similar responses to environmental change and which species traits might mediate these trends. We analyzed a 5-year data set (5,011 captures) from 18 sites in a countryside landscape in southern Costa Rica using statistical models that account and correct for imperfect detection of species across sites, spatial autocorrelation, and consideration of spatial scale. Taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity decreased with deforestation, and assemblages became more phylogenetically clustered. Species’ responses to deforestation were strongly phylogenetically correlated. Body mass and absolute wing loading explained a substantial portion of species variation in species’ habitat preferences, likely related to these traits’ influence on maneuverability in cluttered forest environments. Our findings highlight the role that evolutionary history plays in determining which species will survive human impacts and the need to consider diversity metrics, evolutionary history, and traits together when making predictions about species persistence for conservation or ecosystem functioning.若物种的演化历史预先决定了其对演化上全新胁迫因子的响应，则系统发育（phylogeny）可用于预测在人类主导程度日益加深的世界中物种的存活情况。为阐明系统发育关联在塑造物种对快速环境变化的响应过程中所发挥的作用，本研究聚焦于新热带区蝙蝠（Neotropical bats）类群——一类生态多样性丰富且功能重要的生物类群。我们探究了热带森林与农田之间分类多样性（taxonomic diversity）与系统发育多样性（phylogenetic diversity）的变化模式。随后，我们通过验证亲缘关系较近的物种是否具有相似的环境变化响应模式，以及哪些物种性状可介导这些变化趋势，来探究演化历史的重要性。我们采用考虑并校正了跨样地物种检测不完全性、空间自相关（spatial autocorrelation）以及空间尺度效应的统计模型，对哥斯达黎加南部乡村景观中18个样地的5年监测数据集（共5011次捕获记录）进行了分析。结果显示，分类多样性与系统发育多样性随森林砍伐程度加剧而下降，物种组合的系统发育聚集程度随之升高。物种对森林砍伐的响应具有显著的系统发育相关性。体重与绝对翼负荷（absolute wing loading）可解释物种栖息地偏好差异中的大部分变异，这可能与这两类性状对复杂森林环境中运动灵活性的影响有关。本研究结果凸显了演化历史在决定哪些物种可在人类活动干扰下存活的过程中所发挥的作用，同时也表明，在为物种保护或生态系统功能（ecosystem functioning）预测物种存续情况时，需同时考量多样性指标（diversity metrics）、演化历史与物种性状。