Traits mediate niches and co-occurrences of forest beetles in ways that differ among bioclimatic regions

Aim

To investigate the role of traits in beetle community assembly and test for consistency in these effects among several bioclimatic regions. We asked (1) whether traits predicted species’ responses to environmental gradients (i.e., their niches), (2) whether these same traits could predict co-occurrence patterns, and (3) how consistent were niches and the role of traits among study regions.

Location

Boreal forests in Norway and Finland, temperate forests in Germany.

Methods

We complied capture records of 468 wood-living beetle species from the three regions, along with nine morphological and ecological traits. Eight climatic and forest covariates were also collected. We used Bayesian hierarchical joint species distribution models to estimate the influence of traits and phylogeny on species’ niches. We also tested for correlations between species associations and trait similarity. Finally, we compared species niches and the effects of traits among study regions.

Resu...

研究目的
本研究旨在探究性状在甲虫群落组装中的作用，并检验这些效应在多个生物气候区间的一致性。我们提出三项核心研究问题：（1）性状能否预测物种对环境梯度的响应（即其生态位（niche））；（2）上述性状是否可用于预测物种的共现模式；（3）各研究区域内的物种生态位及性状所发挥的作用具有多大的一致性。

研究区域
挪威与芬兰的北方林、德国的温带森林。

研究方法
我们收集并整理了来自上述三个区域的468种食木甲虫（wood-living beetle）的捕获记录，同时获取了9项形态与生态性状以及8项气候与森林协变量（covariate）数据。本研究采用贝叶斯分层联合物种分布模型（Bayesian hierarchical joint species distribution models），估算性状与系统发育（phylogeny）对物种生态位的影响。此外，我们还检验了物种关联（species associations）与性状相似性（trait similarity）之间的相关性。最后，我们对比了各研究区域间的物种生态位及性状的效应。

结果……