Elevation drives taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic β‐diversity of phyllostomid bats in the Amazon biome

Journal article

WD Carvalho*, IE Fluck*, IJ Castro, RR Hilário, ACM Martins, JJ Toledo, BS Xavier, C Dambros, PED Bobrowiec
Journal of Biogeography, vol. 50(1), 2022, pp. 70-85

DOI: 10.1111/jbi.14533

Cite

APA Click to copy
Carvalho*, W. D., Fluck*, I. E., Castro, I. J., Hilário, R. R., Martins, A. C. M., Toledo, J. J., … Bobrowiec, P. E. D. (2022). Elevation drives taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic β‐diversity of phyllostomid bats in the Amazon biome. Journal of Biogeography, 50(1), 70–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14533

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Carvalho*, WD, IE Fluck*, IJ Castro, RR Hilário, ACM Martins, JJ Toledo, BS Xavier, C Dambros, and PED Bobrowiec. “Elevation Drives Taxonomic, Functional and Phylogenetic β‐Diversity of Phyllostomid Bats in the Amazon Biome.” Journal of Biogeography 50, no. 1 (2022): 70–85.

MLA Click to copy
Carvalho*, W. D., et al. “Elevation Drives Taxonomic, Functional and Phylogenetic β‐Diversity of Phyllostomid Bats in the Amazon Biome.” Journal of Biogeography, vol. 50, no. 1, 2022, pp. 70–85, doi:10.1111/jbi.14533.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{wd2022a,
  title = {Elevation drives taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic β‐diversity of phyllostomid bats in the Amazon biome},
  year = {2022},
  issue = {1},
  journal = {Journal of Biogeography},
  pages = {70-85},
  volume = {50},
  doi = {10.1111/jbi.14533},
  author = {Carvalho*, WD and Fluck*, IE and Castro, IJ and Hilário, RR and Martins, ACM and Toledo, JJ and Xavier, BS and Dambros, C and Bobrowiec, PED}
}

* William Douglas Carvalho and Isadora E. Fluck contributed equally to this study.

Winner of the JBI Innovation Awards
Journal of Biogeography Innovation Awards

Aim - We evaluated the relative importance of geographical and environment variables for taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional β-diversity of phyllostomid bats along the entire Amazon biome and specifically in the lowlands.

Location - Amazon biome.

Taxon - Chiroptera.

Methods - We carried out a bibliographic review and compiled a wide and unprecedented database of 106 phyllostomid bat species at 102 sites throughout the Amazon biome. For all possible pairs of sites in both datasets, we estimated the Jaccard pairwise dissimilarity, that is, β-diversity, considering its three dimensions—taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional—for its two components—turnover (substitution of species) and differences in species richness. The association between dissimilarity measurements and geographical and environment variables was assessed using multiple regressions on distance matrices (MRM).

Results - We found that turnover and differences in species richness had similar contributions to the taxonomic β-diversity. However, for phylogenetic and functional β-diversity, lineages and functions richness differences contribute slightly more than turnover for total β-diversity. In the lowlands, species, lineages and functions richness differences were slightly higher than turnover for all diversity dimensions. When accounting for all the sites, elevation was the main predictor of phyllostomid bats' taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional turnover. For lowland sites, ecoregions was the main (but relatively weak) predictor associated with all β-diversity dimensions.

Main conclusions - Analysis of filtering sites according to elevation revealed that species in the Amazonian lowlands are taxonomically and phylogenetically different from species in the Andes, and present taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional redundancy between assemblages. When accounting for the whole range of distribution of bats, results showed the predominant effect of elevation over other geographical and environmental predictors. This indicates that the diversity of good dispersers such as bats is more affected by specialisation along environment and climatic gradients than by geographical barriers throughout the Amazon biome.

[Picture]

β-diversities in the Amazon across the elevational gradient for all sites (n = 102) and for sites at ≤300 m a.s.l. (n = 78). To illustrate compositional differences among sites, we calculated the first PCoA axis summarising values of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional turnover, and sized the circles accordingly. Circles with similar size correspond to sites with similar composition. The axes in the figure of the functional turnover considering the entire Amazon biome represent latitude (Y-axis) and longitude (X-axis).