Multiscale partitioning of small mammal β‐diversity provides novel insights into the Quaternary faunal history of Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau and Hengduan Mountains

Wen, Zhixin; Yang, Qisen; Qing, Quan; Xia, Lin; Ge, Deyan; Lv, Xue

doi:10.1111/jbi.12706

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…A few studies have analysed turnover and nestedness components' patterns at large spatial extents for specific taxa, with their relative contributions being apparently contingent on the context and scale investigated (Baselga 2010, Svenning et al 2011, Wen et al 2016, but a general investigation of turnover and nestedness relative contributions independent of latitudinal, longitudinal or environmental gradients is still lacking. Turnover can be expected to be lower between larger sampled areas and for more vagile organisms.…”

Section: Expectations For the Scaling Of β-Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

β‐diversity scaling patterns are consistent across metrics and taxa

et al. 2019

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β‐diversity (variation in community composition) is a fundamental component of biodiversity, with implications for macroecology, community ecology and conservation. However, its scaling properties are poorly understood. Here, we systematically assessed the spatial scaling of β‐diversity using 12 empirical large‐scale datasets including different taxonomic groups, by examining two conceptual types of β‐diversity and explicitly considering the turnover and nestedness components. We found highly consistent patterns across datasets. Multiple‐site β‐diversity (i.e. variation across multiple sites) scaling curves were remarkably consistent, with β‐diversity decreasing with sampled area according to a power law. For pairwise dissimilarities, the rates of increase of dissimilarity with geographic distance remained largely constant across scales, while grain size (or scale level) had a stronger effect on overall dissimilarity. In both analyses, turnover was the main contributor to β‐diversity, following total β‐diversity patterns closely, while the nestedness component was largely insensitive to scale changes. Our results highlight the importance of integrating both inter‐ and intraspecific aggregation patterns across spatial scales, which underpin substantial differences in community structure from local to regional scales.

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Section: Expectations For the Scaling Of β-Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

β‐diversity scaling patterns are consistent across metrics and taxa

et al. 2019

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“…Among the many geological processes that shaped the modern biodiversity patterns of east Asia, the dramatic tectonic uplift of the MRSC in the late Miocene and Pliocene was a fundamental event (Fjeldså et al 2012, Favre et al 2015. The mountains of the MRSC harbored abundant climatically stable habitats during Pleistocene climatic oscillations (glacial-interglacial variations) (Qu et al 2014, Wen et al 2016b, Wu et al 2017. The isolation was particularly strong at the high and middle elevations, facilitating the emergence of endemic non-flying small mammals (Wen et al 2016a).…”

Section: Endemic Vs Non-endemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundance of small mammals correlates with their elevational range sizes and elevational distributions in the subtropics

Wen

Cheng

et al. 2018

Ecography

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The idea that a positive abundance-range size relationship (ARR) is pervasive in nature has been challenged by recent studies focused on montane and island vertebrate assemblages. However, because some of these studies used species' local abundance and regional or global range size in examining the ARRs, the negative and neutral trends reported are questionable. Here, by relating species' mean abundance along elevational gradients to elevational range size, we examined the ARRs of non-flying small mammals on three subtropical mountains of southwest China. We also examined the relationship between mean abundance and elevational range centre (reflecting species' elevational distribution) on each mountain, and compared the elevational range centre and mean abundance between endemic and non-endemic species as they may have been subjected to different intensities of historical (e.g. geographical isolation and colonization) and ecological (e.g. ecological specialization) processes. The results show significantly positive relationship between mean abundance and elevational range size on each mountain. We also observed a consistent positive relationship between mean abundance and elevational range centre, probably due to the stronger local specialization of mid-and high-elevation species, lower species richness at higher elevations, and increasing extinction rate of small-ranged less abundant species towards higher elevations. A novel finding of our study is that endemic species show higher elevational range centres and higher mean abundance than non-endemic species on each mountain, which is most likely driven by the increasing geographical isolation with elevation and the higher degree of ecological specialization for endemic species. Measuring abundance and range size at the same spatial scale is a key prerequisite to evaluate the ARRs of montane small mammals.

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“…After calculating pairwise beta diversity for the communities in the different realms, we also calculated beta diversity (taxonomic and phylogenetic) for each cell of the Neotropical and Nearctic realms in order to investigate drivers of beta diversity for each cell and properly evaluate the effects of areas more affected by climatic instability in relation to the LGM. Beta diversity was calculated as the mean beta diversity between each cell and its neighbours, an approach commonly used in recent studies (Melo et al, 2009;Dobrovolski et al, 2012;Wen et al, 2016;Peixoto et al, 2017). This other metric of beta diversity was calculated mainly for these two realms because (1) environmental processes were important in shaping beta diversity in these realms (see results); (2) they are large areas, having a large sample size; and (3) they are well-studied realms where beta diversity patterns have already been evaluated for other clades.…”

Section: Beta Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispersal is more important than climate in structuring turtle communities across different biogeographical realms

Rodrigues

Diniz‐Filho

2017

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Ecological communities may be structured by deterministic processes commonly related to climatic conditions or to neutral processes commonly associated with dispersal limitation. This study aims to evaluate the processes responsible for structuring the composition of turtle communities across different biogeographical realms. Location Global Methods We used distribution maps of 290 non‐marine turtle species to determine the components of beta diversity (turnover and nestedness/richness difference) within the biogeographical realms. We also used a recently published phylogeny to calculate phylogenetic beta diversity. Then, we used partial Mantel tests and multiple regressions on distance matrices (MRM) to evaluate the importance of ecological and spatial factors in determining turtle beta diversity. We also used multiple regressions to evaluate whether temperature instability since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) or topographical heterogeneity was the main driver of beta diversity. Results The beta diversity of turtles in all realms was mainly influenced by the turnover component. However, the nestedness/richness difference component was also important, mainly in realms subject to large climatic variations since the LGM. Environmental distance was positively related to beta diversity in some realms, but this effect was generally low. Geographical distance explained a higher amount of variance than environmental distances in all the realms. Phylogenetic beta diversity provided similar results to taxonomic beta diversity. Temperature instability since the LGM was a strong driver of taxonomic beta diversity in the Nearctic realm, but its effect on the Neotropical realm was mainly concentrated in the turnover component. Main conclusions Spatial processes such as dispersal may be more important than climatic differences in structuring the composition of turtle communities in the distinct biogeographical realms. However, when climate is also important, the effect of environmental processes such as temperature instability since the LGM and topographical heterogeneity are not the same in the different biogeographical realms.

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Multiscale partitioning of small mammal β‐diversity provides novel insights into the Quaternary faunal history of Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau and Hengduan Mountains

Cited by 29 publications

References 58 publications

β‐diversity scaling patterns are consistent across metrics and taxa

β‐diversity scaling patterns are consistent across metrics and taxa

Abundance of small mammals correlates with their elevational range sizes and elevational distributions in the subtropics

Dispersal is more important than climate in structuring turtle communities across different biogeographical realms

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