Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, MarineGEO, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2022 Feb 23;289(1969):20211762. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1762.
While considerable evidence exists of biogeographic patterns in the intensity of species interactions, the influence of these patterns on variation in community structure is less clear. Studying how the distributions of traits in communities vary along global gradients can inform how variation in interactions and other factors contribute to the process of community assembly. Using a model selection approach on measures of trait dispersion in crustaceans associated with eelgrass () spanning 30° of latitude in two oceans, we found that dispersion strongly increased with increasing predation and decreasing latitude. Ocean and epiphyte load appeared as secondary predictors; Pacific communities were more overdispersed while Atlantic communities were more clustered, and increasing epiphytes were associated with increased clustering. By examining how species interactions and environmental filters influence community structure across biogeographic regions, we demonstrate how both latitudinal variation in species interactions and historical contingency shape these responses. Community trait distributions have implications for ecosystem stability and functioning, and integrating large-scale observations of environmental filters, species interactions and traits can help us predict how communities may respond to environmental change.
虽然物种相互作用强度存在大量的生物地理模式证据，但这些模式对群落结构变化的影响还不太清楚。研究群落中特征的分布如何沿着全球梯度变化，可以了解相互作用和其他因素的变化如何促成群落组装过程。我们使用一种模型选择方法，对与鳗草（Zostera marina）相关的甲壳类动物的特征分散度进行了度量，这些甲壳类动物分布在两个大洋的 30°纬度范围内，结果发现，分散度随着捕食强度的增加和纬度的降低而强烈增加。海洋和附生植物负荷似乎是次要的预测因素；太平洋群落的分散度更高，而大西洋群落的聚集度更高，附生植物的增加与聚集度的增加有关。通过研究物种相互作用和环境过滤器如何在生物地理区域影响群落结构，我们展示了物种相互作用的纬度变化和历史偶然性如何塑造这些反应。群落特征分布对生态系统稳定性和功能有影响，整合环境过滤器、物种相互作用和特征的大规模观测可以帮助我们预测群落对环境变化的可能反应。
