Stable body sizes in soil nematodes across altitudes: The role of intrageneric variation in community assembly.

ABSTRACT: Animal body size exhibits rapid responses to environmental variations and displays considerable variability across ecological scales, significantly influencing ecological community assembly. However, our understanding of the extent of body size variation and its responses to environmental differences within soil fauna remains limited, impeding a comprehensive grasp of soil fauna's functional ecology. Here, we aim to investigate the magnitude of intrageneric body size variation and its implications for soil nematode community assembly along an altitudinal gradient. We examined soil nematode body size responses along an altitudinal gradient spanning from 3136 to 4128 m in an alpine mountain region of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. We assessed the contributions of intra- and intergeneric variat

SUBMITTER: Li T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11246979 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature