Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne Biophore, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland ; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics Genopode, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne Biophore, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ecol Evol. 2013 Dec;3(15):4925-39. doi: 10.1002/ece3.868. Epub 2013 Nov 8.
The trend of closely related taxa to retain similar environmental preferences mediated by inherited traits suggests that several patterns observed at the community scale originate from longer evolutionary processes. While the effects of phylogenetic relatedness have been previously studied within a single genus or family, lineage-specific effects on the ecological processes governing community assembly have rarely been studied for entire communities or flora. Here, we measured how community phylogenetic structure varies across a wide elevation gradient for plant lineages represented by 35 families, using a co-occurrence index and net relatedness index (NRI). We propose a framework that analyses each lineage separately and reveals the trend of ecological assembly at tree nodes. We found prevailing phylogenetic clustering for more ancient nodes and overdispersion in more recent tree nodes. Closely related species may thus rapidly evolve new environmental tolerances to radiate into distinct communities, while older lineages likely retain inherent environmental tolerances to occupy communities in similar environments, either through efficient dispersal mechanisms or the exclusion of older lineages with more divergent environmental tolerances. Our study illustrates the importance of disentangling the patterns of community assembly among lineages to better interpret the ecological role of traits. It also sheds light on studies reporting absence of phylogenetic signal, and opens new perspectives on the analysis of niche and trait conservatism across lineages.
亲缘关系密切的分类群保留相似环境偏好的趋势是由遗传特征介导的，这表明在群落尺度上观察到的几种模式起源于更长的进化过程。虽然以前已经在单个属或科内研究了系统发育关系的影响，但对于整个群落或植物群，很少研究谱系特异性对控制群落组装的生态过程的影响。在这里，我们使用共存指数和净亲缘关系指数（NRI），测量了代表 35 个科的植物谱系在广泛的海拔梯度上的群落系统发育结构如何变化。我们提出了一个框架，该框架分别分析每个谱系，并揭示了树节点处生态组装的趋势。我们发现，对于更古老的节点，存在普遍的系统发育聚类，而对于更近的树节点，则存在过度分散。因此，亲缘关系密切的物种可能会迅速进化出新的环境耐受性，从而辐射到不同的群落中，而较老的谱系可能会通过有效的扩散机制或排除具有更多发散环境耐受性的较老谱系来保留其固有的环境耐受性，从而占据相似环境中的群落。我们的研究说明了在谱系之间分解群落组装模式以更好地解释特征的生态作用的重要性。它还阐明了报告缺乏系统发育信号的研究，并为跨谱系分析生态位和特征保守性开辟了新的视角。
