Process-Based Species Pools Reveal the Hidden Signature of Biotic Interactions Amid the Influence of Temperature Filtering

ABSTRACT: A persistent challenge in ecology is to tease apart the in-fluence of multiple processes acting simultaneously and interactingin complex ways to shape the structure of species assemblages. Weimplement a heuristic approach that relies on explicitly defining spe-cies pools and permits assessment of the relative influence of the mainprocesses thought to shape assemblage structure: environmentalfil-tering, dispersal limitations, and biotic interactions. We illustrate ourapproach using data on the assemblage composition and geographicdistribution of hummingbirds, a comprehensive phylogeny and mor-phological traits. The implementation of several process-based speciespool definitions in null models suggests that temperature—but not pre-cipitation or dispersal limitation—acts as the main regionalfilter of as-semblage structure. Incorporating this environmentalfilter directly intothe 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 reexaminationof a multitude of phylogenetic- and trait-based studies that did not ex-plicitly consider potentially important processes in their definition ofthe species pool. Our heuristic approach provides a transparent wayto explore patterns and refine interpretations of the underlying causesof assemblage structure.

• Autores: Lessard, Jean Philippe; Weinstein, Ben; Borregaard, Michael; Marske, Katharine; Martin, Danny; McGuire, Jimmy; Parra Vergara, Juan Luis; Rahbek, Carsten; Graham, Catherine
• Tipo de recurso: Article of investigation
• Fecha de publicación: 2016
• Institución: Universidad de Antioquia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UdeA
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:bibliotecadigital.udea.edu.co:10495/26767
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/10495/26767
• Palabra clave: Distribución Animal; Animal Distribution; Aves - fisiología; Birds - physiology; Ecosistema; Ecosystem; Filogenia; Phylogeny
• Rights: openAccess
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/co/