Midpoint attractors and species richness: Modelling the interaction between environmental drivers and geometric constraints
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: We introduce a novel framework for conceptualising, quantifying and unifying discordant patterns of species richness along geographical gradients. While not itself explicitly mechanistic, this approach offers a path towards understanding mechanisms. In this study, we focused on the diverse patterns of species richness on mountainsides. We conjectured that elevational range midpoints of species may be drawn towards a single midpoint attractor - a unimodal gradient of environmental favourability. The midpoint attractor interacts with geometric constraints imposed by sea level and the mountaintop to produce taxon-specific patterns of species richness. We developed a Bayesian simulation model to estimate the location and strength of the midpoint attractor from species occurrence data sampled along mountainsides. We also constructed midpoint predictor models to test whether environmental variables could directly account for the observed patterns of species range midpoints. We challenged these models with 16 elevational data sets, comprising 4500 species of insects, vertebrates and plants. The midpoint predictor models generally failed to predict the pattern of species midpoints. In contrast, the midpoint attractor model closely reproduced empirical spatial patterns of species richness and range midpoints. Gradients of environmental favourability, subject to geometric constraints, may parsimoniously account for elevational and other patterns of species richness.
Source: Ecology Letters
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12640
Authors: Robert K. Colwell, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Louise A. Ashton, Jan Beck, Gunnar Brehm, Tom M. Fayle, Konrad Fiedler, Matthew L. Forister, Michael Kessler, Roger L. Kitching, Petr Klimes, Jürgen Kluge, John T. Longino, Sarah C. Maunsell, Christy M. McCain, Jimmy Moses, Sarah Noben, Katerina Sam, Legi Sam, Arthur M. Shapiro, Xiangping Wang, Vojtech Novotny
Institutions: University of Connecticut, University of Colorado Boulder, Universidade Federal de Goiás, University of Vermont, Griffith University, Natural History Museum, University of Basel, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Universiti of Malaysia Sabah, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Institute of Entomology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Biology Centre, Imperial College London, University of Vienna, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Zurich, Philipps University of Marburg, University of Utah, University of Papua New Guinea, New Guinea Binatang Research Center, University of California, Davis, Beijing Forestry University
Language: English
Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Yayasan Sime Darby, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Griffith University, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Darwin Initiative, Australian Research Council, European Social Fund
Awards: Collaborative Research: Ant Diversity of the MesoAmerican Corridor (ADMAC), How do changes in species interaction networks affect ecosystem function when tropical forests are degraded?, G2605004324, G2611187962, G2759622201, Collaborative Research: Forecasting and forestalling tipping points in an aquatic ecosystem, Ecosystem quality and herbivore dynamics in tropical rainforests fragmented by deforestation, RCN: Synthesizing Deep Time and Recent Community Ecology, Composition of observed, predicted and experimentally generated plant-insect food webs along an altitudinal gradient in New Guinea, G4376763818, Center for tropical biology, Top-down control of arthropods and herbivory by birds, ants and bats in tropical forest ecosystems along complete altitudinal gradient, G635400961, 阔叶红松林恢复演替中功能性状和功能多样性对生态系统功能的影响机制, G7680417592, Dimensions: Collaborative: The climate cascade: functional and evolutionary consequences of climatic change on species, trait, and genetic diversity in a temperate ant community, G7902369569
OpenAlex ID: W2472863079