Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas, CONICET, CC 507, 5500 Mendoza, Argentina.
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Padre Jorge Contreras 1300, M5502JMA Mendoza, Argentina.
An Acad Bras Cienc. 2023 Aug 28;95(suppl 1):e20210439. doi: 10.1590/0001-3765202320210439. eCollection 2023.
Few studies have evaluated how climate is mechanistically related to species richness in mountain environments. We used path analysis to evaluate predictions of several mechanistic hypotheses based on their hypothesized mechanism relating climate with richness of darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). We modeled the influence of spatial covariation on climatic variables and tenebrionid richness. Results showed that richness peaks at mid elevations, chiefly influenced by precipitation and temperature, both directly and indirectly through geographic range sizes. The best fitting model explains 84% of the variance of tenebrionid richness. We suggest this pattern is induced by a water-energy balance along the altitudinal gradient. At low elevations, energy availability is high but water deficit may limit species richness; in contrast, at high elevations water availability is high, but energy deficit may limit species richness. These results suggest high susceptibility of the study region to future global climate change.
很少有研究评估气候在山地环境中与物种丰富度之间的机械关系。我们使用路径分析来评估基于气候与暗甲虫（鞘翅目：拟步甲科）丰富度之间假设关系的几种机械假设的预测。我们对空间协变对气候变量和拟步甲丰富度的影响进行了建模。结果表明，丰富度在中海拔处达到峰值，主要受降水和温度的影响，这些因素直接和间接地通过地理范围大小来影响丰富度。拟合最好的模型解释了 84%的拟步甲丰富度的方差。我们认为这种模式是由沿海拔梯度的水-能平衡引起的。在低海拔地区，能量供应充足，但水分不足可能限制物种丰富度；相反，在高海拔地区，水分供应充足，但能量不足可能限制物种丰富度。这些结果表明，研究区域对未来全球气候变化的敏感性很高。
