BackgroundDiversity patterns result from ecological to evolutionary processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales. Species trait variation determine the spatial scales at which organisms perceive the environment. Despite this knowledge, the coupling of all these factors to understand how diversity is structured is still deficient. Here, we review the role of ecological and evolutionary processes operating across different hierarchically spatial scales to shape diversity patterns of bats—the second largest mammal order and the only mammals with real flight capability.Main bodyWe observed that flight development and its provision of increased dispersal ability influenced the diversification, life history, geographic distribution, and local interspecific interactions of bats, differently across multiple spatial scales. Niche packing combined with different flight, foraging and echolocation strategies and differential use of air space allowed the coexistence among bats as well as for an increased diversity supported by the environment. Considering distinct bat species distributions across space due to their functional characteristics, we assert that understanding such characteristics in Chiroptera improves the knowledge on ecological processes at different scales. We also point two main knowledge gaps that limit progress on the knowledge on scale-dependence of ecological and evolutionary processes in bats: a geographical bias, showing that research on bats is mainly done in the New World; and the lack of studies addressing the mesoscale (i.e. landscape and metacommunity scales).ConclusionsWe propose that it is essential to couple spatial scales and different zoogeographical regions along with their functional traits, to address bat diversity patterns and understand how they are distributed across the environment. Understanding how bats perceive space is a complex task: all bats can fly, but their perception of space varies with their biological traits.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12898-018-0174-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Aim To investigate global patterns of phylogenetic beta diversity (phylobetadiversity, PBD) components in bats (Chiroptera), testing whether the strong dispersal barriers among realms led to lineage differentiation between them and whether the flight capability of the study group created distance-decay patterns in PBD, with lower turnover rates between the closest biogeographical regions.Location Global, delimited by biogeographical regions.Methods Using the global distribution of bats and a supertree available for most species, we calculated PBD using the complement of the PhyloSor index. In addition, to distinguish the relative roles of local (e.g. lineage filtering) and regional processes (e.g. speciation) in shaping broad-scale patterns of PBD, we partitioned PBD into two components: the turnover component (PBD Turn ) and the phylogenetic diversity (PD) component (PBD PD ). We used a null model to test whether assemblages were more or less phylogenetically dissimilar than expected by chance. We also performed a Mantel analysis to analyse the distance-decay patterns of PBD and its two components.Results The most striking difference in PBD was found between the Old World and the New World. In general, the PBD pattern was determined by PBD Turn . For some adjacent regions we noticed the PBD PD component was more important, indicating that the dissimilarity was mostly due to differences in phylogenetic diversity. On the other hand, for other adjacent regions, the observed PBD Turn was higher than expected by chance and the PBD PD was lower. This demonstrates that, although these regions are relatively close in space, there are other factors driving phylogenetic differences between them (i.e. ecological factors).Main conclusions Our results suggest that at broad scales, the PBD of bats is determined by PBD Turn . We postulate that the flight ability of bats led to low turnover rates between adjacent regions in the absence of other factors that can drive differences between them (e.g. strong environmental barriers).

Climatic conditions vary in spatial frequency globally. Spatially rare climatic conditions provide fewer suitable environments than common ones and should impose constraints on the types of species present locally and regionally. We used data on 467 North American angiosperms to test the effects of the spatial frequency of climatic conditions on ecological niche specialisation and functional diversity. We predicted that rare climates should favour generalist species that are able to inhabit a broader range of climatic conditions. Our results show that climate frequency filters species that differ in niche breadths and rare environments host species combinations with greater functional diversity. The proposed analytical approaches and hypotheses can be adapted to investigate different aspects of ecological assemblies and their biodiversity. We discuss different mechanisms regarding how spatial frequency of environments can affect niche composition and functional diversity. These should be useful while developing theoretical frameworks for generating a deeper understanding of its underpinnings.

Researchers in ecology and evolutionary biology are increasingly dependent on computational code to conduct research, and the use of efficient methods to share, reproduce, and collaborate on code as well as any research-related documentation has become fundamental. GitHub is an online, cloud-based service that can help researchers track, organize, discuss, share, and collaborate on software and other materials related to research production, including data, code for analyses, and protocols.Despite these benefits, the use of GitHub by EEB researchers is not widespread due to the lack of domain-specific information and guidelines. To help EEB researchers adopt useful features from GitHub in their own workflows, we review twelve practical ways to use the platform. We outline features ranging from low to high technical difficulty: storing code, managing projects, coding collaboratively, conducting peer review, and writing a manuscript. Given that members of a research team may have different technical skills and responsibilities, we describe how the optimal use of GitHub features may vary among members of a research collaboration. As more ecologists and evolutionary biologists establish their workflows using GitHub, the field can continue to push the boundaries of collaborative, transparent, and open research.

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