Environmental heterogeneity, rather than stability, explains spider assemblage differences between ecosystems

Abstract

The open ecosystem (e.g. grasslands, prairies, shrublands) tends to be ecologically less stable than closed one (i.e. forests) and encompassess higher spatial heterogeneity in terms of environmental diversity. Such differences are expected to differentially constrain the diversity and structure of the communities that inhabit each of them, but identifying the specific processes driving contrasting biodiversity patterns between open and closed systems is challenging. In order to understand how environmental variability might structure spider assemblages, both between and within open and closed ecosystems, we implement a high throughput multiplex barcode sequencing approach to generate a dataset for 8585 specimens representing 168 species, across the open ecosystem within the Canary Islands. Combining these with spider sequences from the closed ecosystem within the same islands, we show that spider communities in the open ecosystem show higher species richness, higher beta diversity, and higher proportions of rare species but proportionately lower numbers of endemic species than communities in the closed ecosystem. We furthermore assess if environmental heterogeneity and habitat stability are the major drivers of such differences by assessing spatial genetic structuring and the influence of bioclimatic variables. Our results point to environmental heterogeneity rather than stability as a major driver of spatial patterns between open and closed ecosystems.