Fichaux Mélanie, Béchade Benoît, Donald Julian, Weyna Arthur, Delabie Jacques Hubert Charles, Murienne Jérôme, Baraloto Christopher, Orivel Jérôme
CNRS, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane (EcoFoG), AgroParisTech, CIRAD, INRA, Université de Guyane, Université des Antilles, Campus Agronomique, BP 316, 97379, Kourou Cedex, France.
Laboratoire EDB (UMR 5174: CNRS, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, IRD), Université Paul Sabatier, bâtiment 4R1, 118, route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
Oecologia. 2019 Feb;189(2):501-513. doi: 10.1007/s00442-019-04341-z. Epub 2019 Jan 30.
Determining assembly rules of co-occurring species persists as a fundamental goal in community ecology. At local scales, the relative importance of environmental filtering vs. competitive exclusion remains a subject of debate. In this study, we assessed the relative importance of habitat filtering and competition in structuring understory ant communities in tropical forests of French Guiana. Leaf-litter ants were collected using pitfall and Winkler traps across swamp, slope and plateau forests near Saül, French Guiana. We used a combination of univariate and multivariate analyses to evaluate trait response of ants to habitat characteristics. Null model analyses were used to investigate the effects of habitat filtering and competitive interactions on community assembly at the scale of assemblages and sampling points, respectively. Swamp forests presented a much lower taxonomic and functional richness compared to slope and plateau forests. Furthermore, marked differences in taxonomic and functional composition were observed between swamp forests and slope or plateau forests. We found weak evidence for competitive exclusion based on null models. Nevertheless, the contrasting trait composition observed between habitats revealed differences in the ecological attributes of the species in the different forest habitats. Our analyses suggest that competitive interactions may not play an important role in structuring leaf-litter ant assemblages locally. Rather, habitats are responsible for driving both taxonomic and functional composition of ant communities.
确定共存物种的组装规则仍然是群落生态学的一个基本目标。在局部尺度上，环境过滤与竞争排斥的相对重要性仍然是一个争论的话题。在本研究中，我们评估了栖息地过滤和竞争在法属圭亚那热带森林林下蚂蚁群落结构中的相对重要性。使用陷阱和温克勒诱捕器在法属圭亚那萨伊尔附近的沼泽、斜坡和高原森林中收集落叶层蚂蚁。我们结合单变量和多变量分析来评估蚂蚁对栖息地特征的性状响应。空模型分析分别用于研究栖息地过滤和竞争相互作用对组合和采样点尺度上群落组装的影响。与斜坡和高原森林相比，沼泽森林的分类和功能丰富度要低得多。此外，在沼泽森林与斜坡或高原森林之间观察到分类和功能组成上的显著差异。基于空模型，我们发现竞争排斥的证据较弱。然而，不同栖息地之间观察到的性状组成差异揭示了不同森林栖息地中物种生态属性的差异。我们的分析表明，竞争相互作用可能在局部落叶层蚂蚁组合的结构中不发挥重要作用。相反，栖息地是驱动蚂蚁群落分类和功能组成的原因。
