Partitioning beta diversity to untangle mechanisms underlying the assembly of bird communities in Mediterranean olive groves

García‐Navas, Vicente; Martínez‐Núñez, Carlos; Tarifa, Rubén; Molina-Pardo, José Luis; Valera, Francisco; Salido, Teresa; Camacho, Francisco; Rey, Pedro J.

doi:10.1111/ddi.13445

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Patterns of beta diversity, and its partitioning into two main components – species turnover and nestedness –, provide an important insight into the structuring of biological communities (Baselga, 2010 ; Socolar et al, 2016 ). Local assemblages are shaped by interactions between local and regional processes, which can be neutral (random subsets of regional metacommunity) or deterministic (species sorting according to local conditions; García‐Navas et al, 2022 ). Hence, species turnover and nestedness reflect different mechanisms underlying the change in assemblage structure across the region – species replacement or their selective loss (Bevilacqua & Terlizzi, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns and drivers of Nothobranchius killifish diversity in lowland Tanzania

Reichard

Janáč

Blažek

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Temporary pools are seasonal wetland habitats with specifically adapted biota, including annual Nothobranchius killifishes that survive habitat desiccation as diapausing eggs encased in dry sediment. To understand the patterns in the structure of Nothobranchius assemblages and their potential in wetland conservation, we compared biodiversity components (alpha, beta, and gamma) between regions and estimated the role and sources of nestedness and turnover on their diversity. We sampled Nothobranchius assemblages from 127 pools across seven local regions in lowland Eastern Tanzania over 2 years, using dip net and seine nets. We estimated species composition and richness for each pool, and beta and gamma diversity for each region. We decomposed beta diversity into nestedness and turnover components. We tested nestedness in three main regions (Ruvu, Rufiji, and Mbezi) using the number of decreasing fills metric and compared the roles of pool area, isolation, and altitude on nestedness. A total of 15 species formed assemblages containing 1–6 species. Most Nothobranchius species were endemic to one or two adjacent regions. Regional diversity was highest in the Ruvu, Rufiji, and Mbezi regions. Nestedness was significant in Ruvu and Rufiji, with shared core ( N . melanospilus , N . eggersi , and N . janpapi ) and common ( N. ocellatus and N . annectens ) species, and distinctive rare species. Nestedness apparently resulted from selective colonization rather than selective extinction, and local species richness was negatively associated with altitude. The Nothobranchius assemblages in the Mbezi region were not nested, and had many endemic species and the highest beta diversity driven by species turnover. Overall, we found unexpected local variation in the sources of beta diversity (nestedness and turnover) within the study area. The Mbezi region contained the highest diversity and many endemic species, apparently due to repeated colonizations of the region rather than local diversification. We suggest that annual killifish can serve as a flagship taxon for small wetland conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…terministic (species sorting according to local conditions;García- Navas et al, 2022). Hence, species turnover and nestedness reflect different mechanisms underlying the change in assemblage structure across the region -species replacement or their selective loss(Bevilacqua & Terlizzi, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and drivers of Nothobranchius killifish diversity in lowland Tanzania

Reichard

Janáč

Blažek

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Simplification of species diversity to the number of species or to a composite diversity index leads to a substantial loss of information that may be crucial in examining the effect of environmental factors as shown in this study. This might be especially important in a context where the anthropicdriven simplification of ecosystems leads to biotic homogenization and the preponderance of generalist species (McKinney and Lockwood, 1999;Kehinde and Samways, 2014;García-Navas et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We adapted this concept by summing the specificity of the species for the habitats, which is a component of the indicator value according to Dufrêne and Legendre (1997), in a score per habitat to compare the contribution of each habitat to the regional species richness (see Supplementary Methods for formula). This is a method commonly used to assess the uniqueness or contribution of different habitat types to the meta-community (e.g., García-Navas et al, 2022).…”

Section: Habitat Specificity In Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, intensified agricultural landscapes can affect diversity at different levels beyond local species loss (i.e., decreased alpha diversity) such as, for instance, a reduced beta-diversity leading to biotic homogenization across sites (Gossner et al, 2016;Larsen et al, 2018). Although an increasing number of studies recently examined the effects of AES on complex components of diversity such as beta-diversity (Warzecha et al, 2021), functional diversity (Gallé et al, 2020;Feng et al, 2021;García-Navas et al, 2022) or interaction networks (Martínez-Núñez et al, 2019) they are still scarce and rarely use a multilevel approach. In this study we aim to fill some of these gaps of knowledge by following the conceptual framework developed by Legendre et al (2005) and further discussed by authors (e.g., Legendre et al, 2008;Tuomisto and Ruokolainen, 2008) for analyzing data with respect to diversity components.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spiders indicate delivery of an agri-environment scheme at multiple diversity levels

Jeanneret

Pozzi²,

Nuñez

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Agri-environment schemes (AES) are expected to counteract the negative impacts of intensive agriculture on biodiversity. These schemes were specifically designed to target farmland biodiversity and included, for instance, ecological focus areas (EFAs). In Switzerland, in order to qualify for direct payments, farmers must manage 7% or more of their land as biodiversity promotion areas (BPAs). BPAs encompass extensively managed and low intensity hay meadows, fallows (wildflower strips), traditional orchards with high-stem trees and hedgerows. Evaluation of AES delivery for biodiversity is of crucial importance but must be performed across several years and considering the various components of species diversity to avoid incomplete or wrong conclusions. From a complex study design comprising 478 fields in three regions and sampling over 7 years with four sampling times, spider assemblages of BPA habitats were compared to corresponding conventionally managed fields. A battery of investigations was performed including alpha- and beta-diversity analysis, multivariate dispersion, indicator species and species specificity to understand what BPAs deliver for spiders in the habitat scale and farming landscape. Results showed that alpha-diversity (average number of species) was usually higher in BPA habitats than in conventionally managed fields but the species composition (beta-diversity) had more power to perceive AES impact. Furthermore, the various environmental conditions of BPAs in the farming landscape led to highly diverse spider assemblages (multivariate dispersion) emphasizing that not only the agricultural management plays a role in determining species diversity but the environmental heterogeneity. Indicator (and rare) species were mostly found in woody BPAs (hedges and high-stem tree orchards) revealing the high importance of these BPA habitats for spider conservation. At regional scale, BPA hedges contributed most to the regional diversity of spiders in grassland and mixed regions while BPA meadows and wildflower strip BPAs were first delivering in the region of arable crops. Recommendations highlight the role of the woody habitats and of the environmental heterogeneity in the farming landscape as well as of regional planning to make AES effective.

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Turnover of bird species along the Nullarbor Plain: Insights from taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional beta diversity

García‐Navas,

Martínez‐Núñez,

Christidis

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

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The Nullarbor Plain constitutes one of the main biogeographic barriers of Australia, and it has been suggested to have played a key role in the disjunct distribution of numerous southern Australian species. Although previous research has shown that the origin of this barrier coincides with the timing of the speciation events in some plant lineages, it is not clear whether the uplift of this barrier promoted divergence events in vertebrates. We addressed the role of the Nullarbor barrier and its fringing semiarid habitats as drivers of beta diversity in bird assemblages. Specifically, we determined the effect of distance from the Nullarbor barrier, environmental conditions, and isolation by distance on the composition of local communities on both sides of the plain. We measured beta diversity using taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional metrics of composition. The influence of precipitation, geographic distance, and distance to the Nullarbor barrier on these metrics was addressed using generalized dissimilarity models and a moving‐window approach. We also tested for differences in local extinction, dispersal and speciation rates, and lineage diversity between two regions, southeastern (SE) and southwestern (SW) Australia. Geological and orogenetic dynamics linked to the appearance of the Nullarbor Plain may have spurred speciation events in SE. However, evidence suggests that subsequent periods in which this region was wetter and forested favored dispersal, mainly from SE to SW. Accordingly, observed dissimilarity in species composition was lower than expected at random, suggesting the existence of considerable turnover between regions. Our results suggest that precipitation deficit (and the xeric vegetation that it promotes) was the most important predictor of beta diversity, whereas the distance to the barrier explained some variation in terms of phylogenetic composition. This study shows that the uplift of the Nullarbor barrier played a minor role in shaping present‐day bird diversity in southern Australia. Recent speciation events coupled with historical connectivity can explain the observed patterns.

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Partitioning beta diversity to untangle mechanisms underlying the assembly of bird communities in Mediterranean olive groves

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 20 publications

References 88 publications

Patterns and drivers of Nothobranchius killifish diversity in lowland Tanzania

Patterns and drivers of Nothobranchius killifish diversity in lowland Tanzania

Spiders indicate delivery of an agri-environment scheme at multiple diversity levels

Turnover of bird species along the Nullarbor Plain: Insights from taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional beta diversity

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