CREAF, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain.
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain.
PLoS One. 2020 Feb 19;15(2):e0228625. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228625. eCollection 2020.
Functional trait-based approaches are increasingly used for studying the processes underlying community assembly. The relative influence of different assembly rules might depend on the spatial scale of analysis, the environmental context and the type of functional traits considered. By using a functional trait-based approach, we aim to disentangle the relative role of environmental filtering and interspecific competition on the structure of European ant communities according to the spatial scale and the type of trait considered. We used a large database on ant species composition that encompasses 361 ant communities distributed across the five biogeographic regions of Europe; these communities were composed of 155 ant species, which were characterized by 6 functional traits. We then analysed the relationship between functional divergence and co-occurrence between species pairs across different spatial scales (European, biogeographic region and local) and considering different types of traits (ecological tolerance and niche traits). Three different patterns emerged: negative, positive and non-significant regression coefficients suggest that environmental filtering, competition and neutrality are at work, respectively. We found that environmental filtering is important for structuring European ant communities at large spatial scales, particularly at the scale of Europe and most biogeographic regions. Competition could play a certain role at intermediate spatial scales where temperatures are more favourable for ant productivity (i.e. the Mediterranean region), while neutrality might be especially relevant in spatially discontinuous regions (i.e. the Alpine region). We found that no ecological mechanism (environmental filtering or competition) prevails at the local scale. The type of trait is especially important when looking for different assembly rules, and multi-trait grouping works well for traits associated with environmental responses (tolerance traits), but not for traits related to resource exploitation (niche traits). The spatial scale of analysis, the environmental context and the chosen traits merit special attention in trait-based analyses of community assembly mechanisms.
功能特征分析方法在研究群落组装过程中得到了越来越多的应用。不同组装规则的相对影响可能取决于分析的空间尺度、环境背景和所考虑的功能特征类型。通过使用基于功能特征的方法，我们旨在根据所考虑的空间尺度和特征类型，分解环境过滤和种间竞争对欧洲蚂蚁群落结构的相对作用。我们使用了一个大型的蚂蚁物种组成数据库，该数据库涵盖了分布在欧洲五个生物地理区域的 361 个蚂蚁群落；这些群落由 155 种蚂蚁组成，这些蚂蚁具有 6 种功能特征。然后，我们分析了在不同空间尺度（欧洲、生物地理区域和局部）和不同特征类型（生态宽容和生态位特征）下，种间功能差异和共存之间的关系。出现了三种不同的模式：负、正和非显著回归系数分别表明环境过滤、竞争和中性作用。我们发现，环境过滤在大空间尺度上对欧洲蚂蚁群落的结构起着重要作用，特别是在欧洲和大多数生物地理区域的尺度上。在温度更有利于蚂蚁生产力的中等空间尺度上，竞争可能会发挥一定作用（即地中海地区），而在空间不连续的地区（即阿尔卑斯地区），中性作用可能尤为重要。我们发现，在局部尺度上，没有任何生态机制（环境过滤或竞争）占主导地位。在寻找不同的组装规则时，特征类型尤其重要，多特征分组对于与环境响应相关的特征（宽容特征）效果很好，但对于与资源利用相关的特征（生态位特征）则效果不佳。分析的空间尺度、环境背景和所选择的特征在群落组装机制的基于特征的分析中值得特别关注。
