The relationships of plant species occupancy to niches and traits vary with spatial scale

Aim: Support for different underlying mechanisms of species occupancy is inconsistent, yet this could be related to spatial scale. Since abiotic filtering typically acts at broader scales than biotic interactions, we hypothesise that occupancy could be more driven by species’ abiotic niche (i.e., tolerance and preference of abiotic conditions) at broad scales, whereas species’ traits affecting competitive ability could be more important at fine scales. Here we test these hypotheses by assessing relationships of occupancy to niche and trait metrics across spatial scales.
Location: Four study areas located north of Arctic Circle.
Taxon: Vascular plants.
Methods: We derived occupancy for 106 species at four spatial scales (Micro-scale with plot size of 0.04 m 2 and extent of 2 km, Local-scale with plot size of 4 m 2 and extent of 40 km, Regional-scale with plot size of 4 ha and extent of 800 km, and Polar-scale with plot size of 4 km 2 and extent of 5200 km). We then assessed using general..., spOccu_atMicroScale consists of 1920 plots of size 20 x 20 cm where all vascular plants were identified. Plots are organised in 20 x 8 m grids (12 grids) and the plots of 20 x 20 cm were randomly placed inside the 1 m2 plots of the grids (one 20 x 20 cm plot per one 1m2 plot). Plots are situated in Northern Finland on the slopes of mount Saana.
spOccu_atLocalScale  consists of  573 sites were species occurrences from four 1 m2 plots are pooled to a site. Site consists of four plots five meters from the center of the site to each direction (N, E, S, W). From each plot all vascular plants were identified. Data was collected from Northern Finland and Norway.
data_Regio_dryad consists of 296223 occurrences (coordinates) of 211 species from mainland areas of Finland, Sweden, and Norway north of Arctic Circle. Occurrences were derived from GBIF database (GBIF.org (29 March 2020) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.nolkaq), complemented with entries from national databases of ...,

研究目的：目前关于物种占有度不同潜在维持机制的支持证据并不一致，而这一现象可能与空间尺度（spatial scale）相关。由于非生物过滤作用（abiotic filtering）通常比生物相互作用（biotic interactions）作用于更宽泛的空间尺度，我们提出假说：在大空间尺度下，物种占有度更多由物种的非生物生态位（abiotic niche，即对非生物环境的耐受与偏好）决定；而在精细空间尺度下，影响物种竞争能力的性状则发挥更为关键的作用。本研究通过评估不同空间尺度下物种占有度与生态位、性状指标（trait metrics）的关联关系，对上述假说进行检验。
研究区域：北极圈以北的4个研究区域。
研究类群：维管植物（Vascular plants）。
方法：我们针对4个空间尺度下的106个物种计算了物种占有度：微型尺度（样地面积0.04 m²，空间范围2 km）、局地尺度（样地面积4 m²，空间范围40 km）、区域尺度（样地面积4 ha，空间范围800 km）以及极地尺度（样地面积4 km²，空间范围5200 km）。随后我们通过通用（原文此处存在截断）方法评估不同空间尺度下物种占有度与生态位、性状指标的关联关系以检验上述假说。其中：
微型尺度数据集（spOccu_atMicroScale）：包含1920个20 cm×20 cm的样地，对所有维管植物进行鉴定。样地以20×8 m的网格（共12个网格）布设，20 cm×20 cm的小样地随机放置于网格内的1 m²样地中（每个1 m²样地对应1个20 cm×20 cm样地）。样地位于芬兰北部萨纳山的山坡上。
局地尺度数据集（spOccu_atLocalScale）：共包含573个样点，每个样点由4个1 m²样地的物种出现数据合并得到。样点以其中心为原点，在北、东、南、西四个方向各5 m处布设1 m²样地，对每个样地内的所有维管植物进行鉴定。数据采集于芬兰北部与挪威境内。
区域尺度数据集（data_Regio_dryad）：包含来自北极圈以北芬兰、瑞典、挪威大陆区域的211个物种的296223条出现记录（坐标数据）。该数据源自GBIF数据库（GBIF.org（2020年3月29日）GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.nolkaq），并补充了来自各国数据库的记录……