RT Journal Article
T1 Assessing the equilibrium between assemblage composition and climate: A directional distance-decay approach
A1 Baselga Fraga, Andrés
A1 Gómez Rodríguez, Carola
K1 Anisotropy
K1 Beta diversity
K1 Climatic niches
K1 Dispersal limitation
K1 Equilibrium
K1 Isotropy
K1 Turnover
AB 1. The variation of assemblage composition in space is characterised by the decreasein assemblage similarity with spatial distance. Climatic constraint and dispersallimitation are major drivers of distance-decay of similarity. Distance-decay of similarity is usually conceptualised and modelled as an isotropic pattern, that is, assuming that similarity decays with the same rate in all directions.2. Because climatic gradients are markedly anisotropic, that is, they have differentstrength in different directions, if species distributions were in equilibrium withclimate, the decay of assemblage similarity should be anisotropic in the same direction as the climatic gradient, that is, faster turnover in the direction that maximises the climatic gradient. Thus, deviations from equilibrium between assemblagecomposition and climatic conditions would result in differences in anisotropy between distance-decay of similarity and climatic gradients.3. We assessed anisotropy in distance-decay patterns in marine plankton assemblages, terrestrial vertebrates and European beetles, using two procedures: (a)measuring the correlation between the residuals of a distance-decay model andthe angle in which pairs of sites are separated and (b) computing two separatedistance-decay models for each dataset, one using only pairwise cases that areseparated on North-South direction and another one using pairwise cases separated on East-West direction. We also analysed whether the degree of anisotropyin distance-decay is related to dispersal ability (proportion of wingless species andbody size) and ecological niche characteristics (main habitat and trophic position)by assessing these relationships among beetle taxonomic groups (n = 21).4. Anisotropy varied markedly across realms and biological groups. Despite climaticgradients being steeper in North-South direction than in East-West direction inall datasets, North-South distance-decays tended to be steeper than East-Westdistance-decays in plankton and most vertebrate assemblages, but flatter inEuropean amphibians and most beetle groups.5. Anisotropy also markedly varied across beetle groups depending on their dispersal ability, as the proportion of wingless species explained 60% of the variance inthe difference between North-South and East-West distance-decay slopes
PB Wiley
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/26237
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/26237
LA eng
NO Baselga, A, Gómez-Rodríguez, C. Assessing the equilibrium between assemblage composition and climate: A directional distance-decay approach. J Anim Ecol. 2021; 00: 1– 13. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13509
NO This research was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through grant CGL2016-76637-P
DS Minerva
RD 27 abr 2026