University Grenoble Alpes, Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), F-38000, Grenoble, France.
CNRS, Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), F-38000, Grenoble, France.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jul 12;8(1):10575. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28796-x.
The extent to which closely related species share similar niches remains highly debated. Ecological niches are increasingly analysed by combining distribution records with broad-scale climatic variables, but interactions between species and their environment often occur at fine scales. The idea that macroscale analyses correctly represent fine-scale processes relies on the assumption that average climatic variables are meaningful predictors of processes determining species persistence, but tests of this hypothesis are scarce. We compared broad- and fine-scale (microhabitat) approaches by analyzing the niches of European plethodontid salamanders. Both the microhabitat and the macroecological approaches identified niche differences among species, but the correspondence between micro- and macroecological niches was weak. When exploring niche evolution, the macroecological approach suggested a close relationship between niche and phylogenetic history, but this relationship did not emerge in fine-scale analyses. The apparent pattern of niche evolution emerging in broad-scale analyses likely was the by-product of related species having closely adjacent ranges. The environment actually experienced by most of animals is more heterogeneous than what is apparent from macro-scale predictors, and a better combination between macroecological and fine-grained data may be a key to obtain robust ecological generalizations.
密切相关的物种在多大程度上共享相似的生态位仍然存在很大争议。生态位越来越多地通过将分布记录与广泛的气候变量相结合来进行分析，但物种与其环境之间的相互作用通常发生在细尺度上。宏观分析正确代表细尺度过程的观点依赖于这样一个假设，即平均气候变量是决定物种生存的过程的有意义的预测因子，但对这一假设的检验很少。我们通过分析欧洲有肺螈的生态位比较了大尺度（宏观）和小尺度（微观生境）方法。微观生境和宏观生态方法都确定了物种之间的生态位差异，但微观和宏观生态位之间的对应关系很弱。在探索生态位进化时，宏观生态方法表明生态位与系统发育历史密切相关，但这种关系在小尺度分析中并没有出现。在大尺度分析中出现的明显的生态位进化模式可能是由于相关物种的分布范围紧密相邻所致。实际上，大多数动物所经历的环境比宏观预测因子所显示的更为多样，因此，宏观生态与细粒度数据的更好结合可能是获得稳健生态概括的关键。
