Data from: The role of temperature and dispersal in moss-microarthropod community assembly after a catastrophic event

There is a clear crisis in the maintenance of biodiversity. It has been generated by a multitude of factors, notably habitat loss, now compounded by the effects of climate change. Predicted changes in climate include increased severity and frequency of extreme climatic events. To manage landscapes, an understanding of the processes that allow recovery from these extreme events is required. Understanding these landscape-scale processes of community assembly and disassembly is hindered by the large scales at which they operate. Model systems provide a means of studying landscape scale processes at tractable scales. Here, we assess the combined effects of temperature and habitat-patch isolation on assembly of naturally-diverse moss microarthropod communities after a high-temperature event. We show that community assembly depends on temperature and on degree of habitat isolation. Heated communities were heavily dominated in abundance by two species, one of them relatively large. The resulting size-structure is unlike that seen in the field. Community composition in habitat fragments appears to also have been influenced by the source pool of recolonising fauna. Our results highlight the value of dispersal in disturbed landscapes and the potential for habitat connectivity to buffer communities from the effects of climate change.当前生物多样性维持领域面临显著危机，该危机由诸多因素共同催生，尤以栖息地丧失（habitat loss）最为突出，而气候变化的影响进一步加剧了这一困境。据预测，气候变化将导致极端气候事件（extreme climatic events）的强度与发生频率均有所提升。若要对景观实施有效管理，需明晰可帮助生态系统从这类极端事件中恢复的相关过程。然而，这类景观尺度（landscape-scale）的群落组建（community assembly）与群落解体（community disassembly）过程往往发生在极大的空间范围内，这极大阻碍了相关研究的推进。模型系统为在可控尺度下开展景观尺度生态过程的研究提供了可行路径。本研究针对高温事件后，温度与栖息地斑块隔离度对自然多样的苔藓生境微型节肢动物（microarthropod）群落组建的联合影响展开评估。研究结果显示，群落组建情况取决于温度与栖息地隔离程度。经高温处理的群落，其个体丰度主要由两个物种主导，其中一个物种体型相对较大，由此形成的体型结构与野外实地观测结果存在显著差异。栖息地片段中的群落组成似乎也受到了重新定殖动物区系（recolonising fauna）来源库的影响。本研究结果凸显了扩散（dispersal）在受干扰景观中的重要价值，以及栖息地连通性（habitat connectivity）可通过缓冲作用降低气候变化对群落负面影响的潜在可能。