Fiera Cristina, Habel Jan Christian, Ulrich Werner
Institute of Biology Bucharest, Romanian Academy, 296 Splaiul Independenţei, Bucharest, Romania.
Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, School of Life Science Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
PLoS One. 2018 Jan 2;13(1):e0189638. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189638. eCollection 2018.
The theory of island biogeography predicts the effects of habitat isolation and size on species richness, community assembly, and the persistence of species. Various studies showed that habitat conditions and the ecology of species are also of relevance in explaining community assembly. Geographically isolated habitats like caves with rather constant environmental conditions provide models to test for the relevance of the above described variables. In this study we analysed springtails living in karst caves of the Romanian Carpathians and Dobrogea region. We considered phylogenetic relatedness, habitat and species characteristics to identify the relevant drivers of community assembly. Our data show that species richness of single caves is low. Neither phylogenetic relatedness nor habitat filtering and competitive interactions seem to shape species composition or to affect species richness. We found that glacial-interglacial cycles with subsequent range contractions and expansions might have led to independent and multiple colonisations of caves. Furthermore, single caves might have acted as refugia and thus might have provided the prerequisite for distinct evolution processes, leading to a high level of endemicity of these animal species.
岛屿生物地理学理论预测了栖息地隔离和面积对物种丰富度、群落组装以及物种存续的影响。各项研究表明，栖息地条件和物种生态在解释群落组装方面也具有相关性。像洞穴这种地理上孤立且环境条件相当稳定的栖息地，为检验上述变量的相关性提供了模型。在本研究中，我们分析了生活在罗马尼亚喀尔巴阡山脉和多布罗加地区岩溶洞穴中的跳虫。我们考虑了系统发育相关性、栖息地和物种特征，以确定群落组装的相关驱动因素。我们的数据表明，单个洞穴的物种丰富度较低。系统发育相关性、栖息地过滤和竞争相互作用似乎都不会影响物种组成或物种丰富度。我们发现，冰期 - 间冰期循环以及随后的分布范围收缩和扩张，可能导致了洞穴的独立和多次定殖。此外，单个洞穴可能充当了避难所，因此可能为独特的进化过程提供了前提条件，导致这些动物物种的特有性程度较高。
