Untangling the importance of niche breadth and niche position as drivers of tree species abundance and occupancy across biogeographic regions

Díaz, Dilys M. Vela; Blundo, Cecilia; Cayola, Leslie; Fuentes, Alfredo; Malizia, Lucio R.; Myers, Jonathan A.

doi:10.1111/geb.13139

Cited by 27 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(111 reference statements)

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“…Climatic niche breadth has frequently been used to predict invasiveness ("niche breadth-invasion success hypothesis") (Granot et al 2017;Vazquez 2006). Similar results have also been obtained for native plants, where climatic niche traits are good predictors of the biogeographic expansion of native trees (Vela Díaz et al 2020). Our results showed that this is the case for alien species in Chile.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

A classification system for predicting invasiveness using climatic niche traits and global distribution models: application to alien plant species in Chile

Bustamante¹,

Alves²,

Goncalves³

et al. 2020

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Functional traits that predict plant invasiveness are a central issue in invasion ecology. However, in many cases they are difficult to determine, especially for a large set of species. Climatic niche traits can overcome this problem due to the ease of acquiring them for a large number of species. This effort is critical given that knowledge of species invasiveness is necessary (although not sufficient) to anticipate/manage invasive species. In this study, we examined thermal and hydric niche traits to predict plant invasiveness. We used a set of 49 alien plant species, representative of the alien flora of Chile. Niche traits were obtained using environmental information (WorldClim) and global occurrences. Invasiveness was estimated using global niche models and projection of the potential distribution in Chile. As a final step, we reviewed the literature for a subset of species, documenting their impacts on a) biodiversity, b) crop agriculture and c) livestock. Thermal niche breadth and thermal niche position were the most important niche traits to predict potential distribution (a proxy of invasiveness). Using thermal niche breadth and niche position traits, we constructed a graphical model that classifies alien species as highly invasive (wide thermal niche breadth and low niche position) or low potential to be invasive (narrow niche breadth and high niche position). We also found no association between our invasiveness classification and the documented impact of alien species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

A classification system for predicting invasiveness using climatic niche traits and global distribution models: application to alien plant species in Chile

Bustamante¹,

Alves²,

Goncalves³

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Spatial autocorrelation can therefore lead to artefactual correlations, bringing into question the causal relationship between niche breadth and range size (Moore et al, 2018). When using null‐models to account for spatial extent, or estimating niche breadth from species co‐occurrence data, there seems to be less support for the niche‐breadth hypothesis (Kambach et al, 2019; Vela Diaz et al, 2020). Recent analyses suggest that instead of niche breadth, niche position is a much stronger predictor of a species’ geographic range size (Vela Diaz et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When using null‐models to account for spatial extent, or estimating niche breadth from species co‐occurrence data, there seems to be less support for the niche‐breadth hypothesis (Kambach et al, 2019; Vela Diaz et al, 2020). Recent analyses suggest that instead of niche breadth, niche position is a much stronger predictor of a species’ geographic range size (Vela Diaz et al, 2020). Humans have substantially transformed Earth's terrestrial surface, creating arable, more productive habitats, which has likely benefitted range expansions of species associated with nutrient‐rich habitats and anthropogenic dispersal (Fristoe et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Directional turnover towards larger‐ranged plants over time and across habitats

et al. 2021

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Species turnover is ubiquitous. However, it remains unknown whether certain types of species are consistently gained or lost across different habitats. Here, we analysed the trajectories of 1827 plant species over time intervals of up to 78 years at 141 sites across mountain summits, forests, and lowland grasslands in Europe. We found, albeit with relatively small effect sizes, displacements of smaller‐ by larger‐ranged species across habitats. Communities shifted in parallel towards more nutrient‐demanding species, with species from nutrient‐rich habitats having larger ranges. Because these species are typically strong competitors, declines of smaller‐ranged species could reflect not only abiotic drivers of global change, but also biotic pressure from increased competition. The ubiquitous component of turnover based on species range size we found here may partially reconcile findings of no net loss in local diversity with global species loss, and link community‐scale turnover to macroecological processes such as biotic homogenisation.

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“…The elevational limits were 400 and 900 m obtained from a digital elevation model (National Geographic Institute 2019) and transformed forest areas were excluded (Martinuzzi et al 2018). Of the total of 104 tree species that comprise the Piedmont Forest, the following species were selected as they are canopy dominant and have high economic value (Brown et al 2009, Blundo et al 2012, Vela Diaz et al 2020): P. rhamnoides, M. peruiferum, A colubrina, H. impetiginosus, C. multiflorum, Parapiptadenia excelsa Burkart, C. trichotoma and M. urundeuva.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the potential distribution of valuable tree species based on their regeneration in the Neotropical seasonal dry forest of north-western Argentina

et al. 2022

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Summary The distribution of regeneration makes it possible to assess whether populations of tree species will maintain or change their distributions. For Neotropical dry forests there is little information on the potential changes in the distribution of tree species. Here, we evaluate the potential distributions of adults and seedlings of eight timber tree species of the Piedmont Forest of north-western Argentina by recording the presence of seedlings and adults in plots and modelling with MaxEnt software using three bioclimatic variables. The potential distribution areas of seedlings and adults and the percentage of overlap of seedlings with respect to adults were calculated. The potential distribution for adults was 694 457 ± 62 535 ha, and this figure was 656 564 ± 194 769 ha for seedlings. The potential distribution of seedlings of Calycophyllum multiflorum covered the smallest area (184 496 ha) and had the least overlap with the adults (18%). The difference in the overlap of the potential distribution areas between adults and seedlings suggests that there could be changes in the future distribution of this tree species and C. multiflorum should therefore be the focus of conservation strategies so that the species can follow its bioclimatic niche as the climate changes.

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Untangling the importance of niche breadth and niche position as drivers of tree species abundance and occupancy across biogeographic regions

Cited by 27 publications

References 57 publications

A classification system for predicting invasiveness using climatic niche traits and global distribution models: application to alien plant species in Chile

A classification system for predicting invasiveness using climatic niche traits and global distribution models: application to alien plant species in Chile

Directional turnover towards larger‐ranged plants over time and across habitats

Changes in the potential distribution of valuable tree species based on their regeneration in the Neotropical seasonal dry forest of north-western Argentina

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