Elements of metacommunity structure of Paraguayan bats: multiple gradients require analysis of multiple ordination axes

Presley, Steven J.; Higgins, Christopher L.; López‐González, Celia; Stevens, Richard D.

doi:10.1007/s00442-009-1341-x

Cited by 76 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Localities each included a typical landscape mosaic and were up to 15 km in radius (i.e. within an hour's commuting-range for all species), akin to the 50 km 2 sites used by Presley et al (2009) for their assessment of metacommunity structure in Paraguayan bats. Mangrove localities excluded records from adjacent habitats, and were treated separately if the mangrove patches were more than 15 km apart.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

An acoustic survey of zoophagic bats on islands in the Kimberley, Western Australia, including data on the echolocation ecology, organisation and habitat relationships of regional communities

McKenzie¹,

Bullen²

2012

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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-Bat ultrasound was recorded on 30 of the in-shore islands along the Northern Kimberley coast as part of a biological survey to assess their conservation potential as microcosms of the region's biodiversity. Species were identifi ed from their search-mode echolocation call sequences using a call library based (mainly) on two variables: the frequency maintained for the greatest number of cycles (F peakC ) and sharpness quotient (Q ). Populations of 20 of the 21 species that comprise the Northern Kimberley region's zoophagic bat fauna are now known to occur on these islands, an average of 8±0.6 (S.E.) species per island.The Kimberley has two compositionally distinct bat communities, one occupying landward environments and the other occupying mangroves. Both were represented on the islands. In each community, the search-mode calls of syntopic species were dispersed in spectral space, with few showing more than peripheral overlap in their spectral variables (Q and F peakC ). Their different call designs were functionally appropriate to differences in (1) foraging niche predicted from empirical data on species' fl ight capabilities and foraging behaviours, and (2) airframe variables related to fl ight performance and control. These observations imply a niche-assembly model of metacommunity structure. Pleistocene climatic fl uctuations and habitat fi ltering also appear to have infl uenced metacommunity structure at regional scales. However, nestedness was observed in assemblage composition that could be explained by environmental factors, implying the infl uence of environmental controls. The richest bat assemblages were recorded on the most mesic of the large inshore islands with cavernous landscapes and permanent pools.Comparison with surrounding regions revealed a diversity-productivity model of faunal structure, with an organisation that conforms to the specialisation hypothesis. Six islands, including their mangrove stands, are identifi ed as priorities for conservation. There are no published assemblage data with which to assess the organisation of bat faunas on Australia's continental islands, despite the importance of these islands as conservation arks (Nias et al. 2010). The Kimberley's inshore islands extend from Sunday Island in King Sound to Adolphus Island in Cambridge Gulf ( Figure 1) and, in terms of their climate, geology and biogeographical history, belong to the Northern Kimberley bioregion (e.g. Gibson and McKenzie 2012). Of the 24 species of echolocating bats listed for the Kimberley, 21 are known from the Northern Kimberley (Burbidge et al. 2008;. Prior to this study, however, available data on the region's island bat faunas was fragmentary, as it was gleaned from opportunistic collections made during a few brief visits over the last 40 years by zoologists carrying out general vertebrate surveys (e.g. McKenzie et al. 1978;Friend et al. 1991;McKenzie et al. 1995;How et al. 2006). The richest list was from Koolan Island, where iron ore has been mined since the 1960s (McKenzie et al. 1995)...

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

An acoustic survey of zoophagic bats on islands in the Kimberley, Western Australia, including data on the echolocation ecology, organisation and habitat relationships of regional communities

McKenzie¹,

Bullen²

2012

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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“…Analyses of community structure were conducted separately for non-fragmented and fragmented groups using the ''elements of metacommunity structure'' (EMS) script designed by Presley et al (2009) for MATLAB (version R2010b). The analysis computes an ordination of the site by species incidence matrices with reciprocal averaging (RA), in this case to align abundances from trapping grids along a similarity gradient.…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disassembly of a dune‐dwelling lizard community due to landscape fragmentation

Leavitt

Fitzgerald

2013

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Landscape fragmentation alters patterns of landscape structure that affect quality and configuration of habitats, and disrupts population dynamics and persistence of species. Community disassembly, a process of community change due to nonrandom species losses and declines, is occurring worldwide as a result of landscape fragmentation, habitat loss, and habitat degradation. We carried out a comparative study at 27 trapping sites designed to characterize how fragmentation affects community structure in a dune-dwelling lizard community. Lizard communities in non-fragmented sites demonstrated nested community structure. Conversely, lizard communities at sites fragmented by roads and well pads from oil and gas development had consistently lower abundance of two species, and demonstrated random community structure. Species loss and lower abundance of species at fragmented sites suggested a pattern of community disassembly. The dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus), an ecological specialist, and the lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata) were present on most non-fragmented sites. However, neither species was present on more than half of the fragmented sites, and their abundances were much lower than on non-fragmented sites. We attributed reduced species diversity on fragmented sites to quantitative differences in landscape configuration compared to non-fragmented sites. Specifically, both size and shape of sand dune blowouts differed between non-fragmented and fragmented sites. Fragmented sites possess more large patches of open sand and barren ground and fewer, smaller, and more dispersed shinnery dune blowouts. Patterns of occurrence and relative abundance suggest S. arenicolus and H. maculata were sensitive to these patch-scale attributes. In this ecosystem, landscape-scale fragmentation appears to influence landscape configuration and community disassembly at the patch-scale. Our findings allow us to disentangle drivers of species loss and enhance our understanding of the processes of community disassembly in fragmented landscapes.

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“…Leibold and Mikkelson (2002) recommended only focusing on the first RA axis as it represents the clearest structure in species ranges. However, the second axis can also represent important information about the assemblages (Presley et al 2009), thus we focus on both axes in our assessment. However, given the mostly random structures on the secondary axis, we restrict these results to the 205 supplementary material (Table S1).…”

Section: Statistical Analyses Elements Of Metacommunity Structure (Ems)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used the "R0" ("fixed-equiprobable") method to constrain our null matrices, running 1000 simulations of these null models to compare with 210 our observed matrix. As rare species are known to disproportionately effect the outcome of EMS results, particularly coherence and range boundary clumping (Presley et al 2009), we excluded species with less than two occurrences in each year.…”

Section: Statistical Analyses Elements Of Metacommunity Structure (Ems)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We agree with this and went one step further to focus on a variety of different 365 trait groups. The benefit of the trait-based approach was indicated in the study by Presley et al (2009) who found Clementsian gradients structured a Paraguayan bat metacommunity, but different patterns when breaking into feeding groups (aerial insectivores: Gleasonian; frugivores and molossid insectivores: random distributions). While fluctuating between different structures (Gleasonian, Clementsian and quasi-Clementsian), we also found clear coherence in 370 the combined taxonomic group of non-EPT rather than EPT species.…”

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Supplemental Information 1: Table S1

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The Elements of Metacommunity Structure (EMS) framework gives rise to important ecological insights through the distinction of metacommunities into several different idealised structures. We examined the EMS in assemblages occupying a low-mountain river system in central Germany, sampled over three consecutive years. We compared the idealised distributions of assemblages in both the riparian floodplain zone (carabid beetles and spiders) and the benthic instream environment (benthic invertebrates). We further grouped instream organisms into taxonomic and trait groups to examine whether greater competition signal emerges in more similar species groups. We found little evidence of strong competition, even for trait-modality groups, and nestedness was almost non-existent. In addition to random distributions, Gleasonian distributions (indicating clear, but individualistic turnover between sites) were the most commonly identified structure. Clear differences were apparent between different trait groups, particularly between within-trait modalities. These were most evident for different dispersal modes and life cycle durations, with strong dispersers showing possible signs of mass effects. While random distributions may have partly reflected small sample sizes, clearly coherent patterns were evident for many groups, indicating a sufficient gradient in environmental conditions. The prevalence of random distributions suggests many species are responding to a variety of environmental filters in these river-floodplain metacommunities in an anthropogenically-dominated landscape, whereas Gleasonian distributions indicate species are responding idiosyncratically to a primary environmental gradient. Our findings further emphasise the prevalence of context dependency (spatio-temporal variability) in metacommunity studies and emphasise the need to further disentangle the causes of such variation.

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Elements of metacommunity structure of Paraguayan bats: multiple gradients require analysis of multiple ordination axes

Cited by 76 publications

References 43 publications

An acoustic survey of zoophagic bats on islands in the Kimberley, Western Australia, including data on the echolocation ecology, organisation and habitat relationships of regional communities

An acoustic survey of zoophagic bats on islands in the Kimberley, Western Australia, including data on the echolocation ecology, organisation and habitat relationships of regional communities

Disassembly of a dune‐dwelling lizard community due to landscape fragmentation

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