TY - JOUR
T1 - Process-based species pools reveal the hidden signature of biotic interactions amid the influence of temperature filtering
AU - Lessard, Jean-Philippe
AU - Weinstein, Ben G.
AU - Borregaard, Michael Krabbe
AU - Marske, Katharine Ann
AU - Martin, Danny R.
AU - McGuire, Jimmy A.
AU - Parra, Juan L.
AU - Rahbek, Carsten
AU - Graham, Catherine H.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - A persistent challenge in ecology is to tease apart the in-fluence of multiple processes acting simultaneously and interacting in complex ways to shape the structure of species assemblages. We implement a heuristic approach that relies on explicitly defining spe-cies pools and permits assessment of the relative influence of themain processes thought to shape assemblage structure: environmental fil-tering, dispersal limitations, and biotic interactions. We illustrate our approach using data on the assemblage composition and geographic distribution of hummingbirds, a comprehensive phylogeny and mor-phological traits. The implementation of several process-based species pool definitions in null models suggests that temperature-but not pre-cipitation or dispersal limitation-acts as the main regional filter of as-semblage structure. Incorporating this environmental filter directly into the definition of assemblage-specific species pools revealed an other-wise hidden pattern of phylogenetic evenness, indicating that biotic in-teractions might further influence hummingbird assemblage structure. Such hidden patterns of assemblage structure call for a reexamination of a multitude of phylogenetic-and trait-based studies that did not ex-plicitly consider potentially important processes in their definition of the species pool. Our heuristic approach provides a transparent way to explore patterns and refine interpretations of the underlying causes of assemblage structure.
AB - A persistent challenge in ecology is to tease apart the in-fluence of multiple processes acting simultaneously and interacting in complex ways to shape the structure of species assemblages. We implement a heuristic approach that relies on explicitly defining spe-cies pools and permits assessment of the relative influence of themain processes thought to shape assemblage structure: environmental fil-tering, dispersal limitations, and biotic interactions. We illustrate our approach using data on the assemblage composition and geographic distribution of hummingbirds, a comprehensive phylogeny and mor-phological traits. The implementation of several process-based species pool definitions in null models suggests that temperature-but not pre-cipitation or dispersal limitation-acts as the main regional filter of as-semblage structure. Incorporating this environmental filter directly into the definition of assemblage-specific species pools revealed an other-wise hidden pattern of phylogenetic evenness, indicating that biotic in-teractions might further influence hummingbird assemblage structure. Such hidden patterns of assemblage structure call for a reexamination of a multitude of phylogenetic-and trait-based studies that did not ex-plicitly consider potentially important processes in their definition of the species pool. Our heuristic approach provides a transparent way to explore patterns and refine interpretations of the underlying causes of assemblage structure.
KW - Community assembly
KW - Dispersal limitation
KW - Niche differentiation
KW - Regional species pool
KW - Scale
U2 - 10.1086/684128
DO - 10.1086/684128
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 27277404
AN - SCOPUS:84951284711
SN - 0003-0147
VL - 187
SP - 75
EP - 88
JO - The American Naturalist
JF - The American Naturalist
IS - 1
ER -