Intraspecific trait variability and community assembly in hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: <i>Sphingidae</i>) across an elevational gradient in the eastern Himalayas, India

Mungee, Mansi; Athreya, R.

doi:10.1002/ece3.7054

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 111 publications

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“…The greater promoter of individual variance in our data is internal filtering, which is consistent with other studies that use T ‐statistics (Luo et al, 2016; Mungee & Athreya, 2021; Xavier Jordani et al, 2019; Zorger et al, 2019). The metric

T_{IP / IC}

was lower than expected by chance for almost all traits, suggesting little niche overlap, which can be promoted by local processes such as competition.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Forest conversion into pasture selects dung beetle traits at different biological scales depending on species pool composition

Pessôa

Amaral

Júnior

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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The conversion of forests into open areas has large effects on the diversity and structure of native communities. The intensity of these effects may vary between regions, depending on the existence of native species adapted to open habitats in the regional pool or the time since habitat change. We assess the differences in species richness and functional diversity of dung beetle communities (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) between native forests and novel pasturelands of the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, two biomes with contrasting histories of human occupation in Brazil. We conducted standardized surveys in seven forest fragments and adjacent pastures in each region and measured 14 traits in individuals collected in each type of habitat at each particular site. We calculated functional richness, functional evenness, functional divergence, and community‐weighted mean of traits for each area, and analyzed individual variation through nested variance decomposition and Trait Statistics. Communities were richer and more numerous at the Cerrado. We did not find any consistent relationship between functional diversity and forest conversion beyond the changes in species diversity. Although landscape changes were more recent at the Cerrado, the colonization of the new habitat by native species already adapted to open habitats lessens the functional loss in this biome. This indicates that habitat change's effects on trait diversity depend on the regional species pool rather than on time since land conversion. Forest conversion effects were primarily due to internal filtering. The effects of external filtering only appear at the intraspecific variance level, with contrasting differences between the Cerrado, where traits related to relocation behavior and size are selected, and the Atlantic Forest, where selection operates for traits related to relocation behavior and flight. These results evidence the importance of considering individual variance to address the responses of dung beetle communities to forest conversion.

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T_{IP / IC}

was lower than expected by chance for almost all traits, suggesting little niche overlap, which can be promoted by local processes such as competition.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Forest conversion into pasture selects dung beetle traits at different biological scales depending on species pool composition

Pessôa

Amaral

Júnior

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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“…These cold-induced adversities are particularly severe for small-sized individuals because of their high surface-to-volume ratio that reduced the ability to maintain body temperatures (Watt et al, 2010), or the ability to resist starvation (Cushman et al, 1993) in low-productivity environments. Similar patterns were also found in the hawkmoths assemblages in eastern Himalayas (Mungee & Athreya, 2021).…”

Section: Ta B L Esupporting

confidence: 79%

“…However, while low temperature tends to filter out small-sized moth individuals from an assemblage, low temperature seasonality tends to affect both small-and large-sized individuals. By identifying key climatic drivers and mechanisms that determine the within-assemblage composition of the important animal trait, this study provides new insights into the vulnerability of animal communities to environmental changes.Several previous studies have indicated the importance of environmental filtering in shaping body size composition of animal assemblages, especially in harsh environments(Gomez et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2021;Mungee & Athreya, 2021;Zhang et al, 2020). As expected, our results showed that the strength of environmental filtering in shaping body size composition of moth assemblages increased as temperature decreased along the elevational gradient in Taiwan (Figures4a and 5a).…”

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confidence: 86%

Mechanistic understanding of how temperature and its variability shape body size composition in moth assemblages

Chia,

Wu,

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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Understanding how climate affects trait composition within a biological assemblage is critical for assessing and eventually mitigating climate change impacts on the assemblage and its ecological functioning. While body size is a fundamental trait of animals as it affects many aspects of species' biology and ecology, it remains unclear through what mechanisms temperature and its variability influence within‐assemblage body size variation. This study aims to understand how temperature and its variability shape body size variations in animal assemblages and potentially affect assemblages' vulnerability to climate change. Using >5300 individuals of 680 macromoth species collected from 13 assemblages along a ca. 3000 m elevational gradient in Taiwan, we examined (1) the strength of environmental filtering and niche partitioning in determining the intra‐ and inter‐specific size variations within an assemblage, and (2) the effects of mean temperature and the daily and seasonal temperature variabilities on the strength of the two processes. We found that the body size composition was strongly affected by temperature and its seasonality via both processes. High temperature seasonality enhanced niche partitioning, causing within‐population size convergence. In contrast, low mean temperature and low seasonality both enhanced environmental filtering, causing within‐assemblage size convergence. However, while low temperature restricted the lower size limit within an assemblage, low seasonality restricted both lower and upper size limits. This study indicates an overlooked but important role of temperature seasonality in shaping intra‐ and inter‐specific size variations in moth assemblages through both environmental filtering and niche partitioning. With rising temperatures and amplifying seasonality around the globe, potentially weakened filtering forces may increase the size variation within assemblages, reinforcing the assemblage‐level resilience. Nevertheless, enhanced niche partitioning may limit size variation within populations, which may increase the population‐level vulnerability to environmental changes. This study improves the mechanistic understanding of the climatic effects on trait composition in animal assemblages and provides essential information for biodiversity conservation under climate change. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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“…Although the Himalaya have the highest mountain peaks in the world, their elevational floral and faunal biodiversity patterns, and the potential mechanisms behind these patterns have received little attention. With the exception of a few studies on birds 17 , 18 , plants 28 , 29 and insects 30 , 31 , most other taxa, including bats, remain poorly studied. The Himalaya are warming considerably faster than the global average 32 leading to range shifts in species 33 , and thus a comprehensive understanding of biodiversity patterns is particularly relevant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional diversity of Himalayan bat communities declines at high elevation without the loss of phylogenetic diversity

Chakravarty

Mohan

Voigt

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Species richness exhibits well-known patterns across elevational gradients in various taxa, but represents only one aspect of quantifying biodiversity patterns. Functional and phylogenetic diversity have received much less attention, particularly for vertebrate taxa. There is still a limited understanding of how functional, phylogenetic and taxonomic diversity change in concert across large gradients of elevation. Here, we focused on the Himalaya—representing the largest elevational gradients in the world—to investigate the patterns of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity in a bat assemblage. Combining field data on species occurrence, relative abundance, and functional traits with measures of phylogenetic diversity, we found that bat species richness and functional diversity declined at high elevation but phylogenetic diversity remained unchanged. At the lowest elevation, we observed low functional dispersion despite high species and functional richness, suggesting a niche packing mechanism. The decline in functional richness, dispersion, and divergence at the highest elevation is consistent with patterns observed due to environmental filtering. These patterns are driven by the absence of rhinolophid bats, four congeners with extreme trait values. Our data, some of the first on mammals from the Himalayan region, suggest that in bat assemblages with relatively high species diversity, phylogenetic diversity may not be a substitute to measure functional diversity.

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Intraspecific trait variability and community assembly in hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) across an elevational gradient in the eastern Himalayas, India

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 8 publications

References 111 publications

Forest conversion into pasture selects dung beetle traits at different biological scales depending on species pool composition

Forest conversion into pasture selects dung beetle traits at different biological scales depending on species pool composition

Mechanistic understanding of how temperature and its variability shape body size composition in moth assemblages

Functional diversity of Himalayan bat communities declines at high elevation without the loss of phylogenetic diversity

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