Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.
School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA.
Ecol Lett. 2023 Jul;26(7):1212-1222. doi: 10.1111/ele.14233. Epub 2023 May 10.
Identifying the drivers of community structure and dynamics is a major pursuit in ecology. Emphasis is typically placed on the importance of local scale interactions when attempting to explain these fundamental ecological patterns. However, regional scale phenomena are also important predictors. The importance of regional scale context should be more evident in assemblages where multiple species are close to their range margins. Here, we test the importance of regional scale context using data from a temperate forest plot that contains two species groups - one near its northern range limit and one near its southern range limit. We show the proximity of species to their southern or northern range margins is linked to local scale co-occurrence, similarity in gene expression responses to a key environmental driver, demographic performance and inter-specific variation in conspecific negative density dependence. In sum, many of the key local scale patterns and processes of interest to community ecologists are linked to biogeographic context that is frequently ignored.
确定群落结构和动态的驱动因素是生态学的主要研究目标。在试图解释这些基本的生态模式时，通常强调局部尺度相互作用的重要性。然而，区域尺度现象也是重要的预测因子。在多个物种接近其分布范围边缘的集合体中，区域尺度背景的重要性应该更加明显。在这里，我们使用来自一个温带森林样地的数据来测试区域尺度背景的重要性，该样地包含两个物种组 - 一个接近其北部分布范围的极限，另一个接近其南部分布范围的极限。我们表明，物种与南部或北部分布范围边缘的接近程度与局部尺度共存、对关键环境驱动因素的基因表达响应的相似性、种群表现和种间同种种群负密度依赖性的变异有关。总之，对群落生态学家感兴趣的许多关键局部尺度模式和过程都与经常被忽视的生物地理背景有关。
