Dehling D Matthias, Jordano Pedro, Schaefer H Martin, Böhning-Gaese Katrin, Schleuning Matthias
Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt (Main), Germany School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Integrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC-EBD), Avda. Americo Vespucio s/n, Isla de La Cartuja, E41092 Sevilla, Spain.
Proc Biol Sci. 2016 Jan 27;283(1823). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2444.
Species' functional roles in key ecosystem processes such as predation, pollination or seed dispersal are determined by the resource use of consumer species. An interaction between resource and consumer species usually requires trait matching (e.g. a congruence in the morphologies of interaction partners). Species' morphology should therefore determine species' functional roles in ecological processes mediated by mutualistic or antagonistic interactions. We tested this assumption for Neotropical plant-bird mutualisms. We used a new analytical framework that assesses a species's functional role based on the analysis of the traits of its interaction partners in a multidimensional trait space. We employed this framework to test (i) whether there is correspondence between the morphology of bird species and their functional roles and (ii) whether morphologically specialized birds fulfil specialized functional roles. We found that morphological differences between bird species reflected their functional differences: (i) bird species with different morphologies foraged on distinct sets of plant species and (ii) morphologically distinct bird species fulfilled specialized functional roles. These findings encourage further assessments of species' functional roles through the analysis of their interaction partners, and the proposed analytical framework facilitates a wide range of novel analyses for network and community ecology.
物种在关键生态系统过程（如捕食、授粉或种子传播）中的功能作用由消费物种的资源利用情况决定。资源物种与消费物种之间的相互作用通常需要性状匹配（例如，相互作用伙伴的形态结构具有一致性）。因此，物种的形态结构应决定其在由互利或拮抗相互作用介导的生态过程中的功能作用。我们针对新热带地区植物 - 鸟类的互利共生关系对这一假设进行了检验。我们使用了一个新的分析框架，该框架基于在多维性状空间中对其相互作用伙伴的性状分析来评估一个物种的功能作用。我们运用这个框架来检验：（i）鸟类物种的形态结构与其功能作用之间是否存在对应关系；（ii）形态上特化的鸟类是否履行特化的功能作用。我们发现鸟类物种之间的形态差异反映了它们的功能差异：（i）具有不同形态结构的鸟类以不同的植物物种组合为食；（ii）形态上不同的鸟类物种履行着特化的功能作用。这些发现鼓励通过对物种相互作用伙伴的分析进一步评估物种的功能作用，并且所提出的分析框架有助于对网络和群落生态学进行广泛的新颖分析。
