Altitude acts as an environmental filter on phylogenetic composition, traits and diversity in bee communities

Abstract

Knowledge about the phylogeny and ecology of communities along environmental gradients helps to disentangle the role of competition-driven processes and environmental filtering for community assembly. In this study, we evaluated patterns in species richness, phylogenetic structure and life-history traits of bee communities along altitudinal gradients in the Alps, Germany. We found a linear decline in species richness and abundance but increasing phylogenetic clustering in communities with increasing altitude. The proportion of social-and ground-nesting species, as well as mean body size and altitudinal range of bee communities, increased with increasing altitude, whereas the mean geographical distribution decreased. Our results suggest that community assembly at high altitudes is dominated by environmental filtering effects, whereas the relative importance of competition increases at low altitudes. We conclude that inherent phylogenetic and ecological species attributes at high altitudes pose a threat for less competitive alpine specialists with ongoing climate change.

Diversity of Wild Bees along Elevational Gradient in an Agricultural Area in Central Java, Indonesia

“…Hoiss et al [14] observed 10 species of wild bees at Vigna unguiculata in Ghana belonging to the families Apidae (Xylocopa, Apis, and Amegilla), Megachilidae (Megachile eurymera), and Halictidae (Nomia sp.). Kwapong et al [15] reported that the main insects observed on cowpea flowers were bees such as Apis mellifera, Ceratina sp., Megachile sp., Xylocopa calens, Xylocopa imitator, Braussepis sp., Lipotriches sp., Melecta sp., and Amegilla sp.…”

The Biogeography of Adaptive Radiations and the Geographic Overlap of Sister Species

“…Many local communities appear to be habitat filtered (Emerson and Gillespie 2008; Vamosi et al 2009;Pontarp et al 2012a). For example, high-altitude habitats are occupied by sets of closely related species among bees (Hoiss et al 2012), hummingbirds (Graham et al 2009), and ants (Machac et al 2011). …”

Pemodelan fenologi populasi penggerek batang padi kuning Scirpophaga incertulas (Walker) berbasis pengaruh iklim

“…Penurunan suhu disebabkan oleh perbedaan ketinggian, dimana wilayah Kuningan memiliki ketinggian lebih tinggi (577 m dpl) bila dibandingkan dengan wilayah Sukamandi (50 m dpl). Hal ini didukung oleh beberapa penelitian sebelumnya yang menyatakan bahwa jumlah spesies serangga menurun dengan meningkatnya lintang (Wilf & Labandeira 1999), hal serupa ditemukan bahwa dengan meningkatnya ketinggian terjadi penurunan jumlah spesies yang disebabkan oleh pengaruh lingkungan (Hoiss et al 2012). Selain itu, tempat yang lebih tinggi dapat memperlambat reproduksi serangga (Duyck et al 2010) di era pemanasan global karena fenologi serangga bergantung pada suhu yang memungkinkan terjadinya distribusi geografis serangga (Regniere et al 2012).…”