Expanding the understanding of local community assembly in adaptive radiations.

ABSTRACT:

Communities are thought to be assembled by two types of filters

by the environment relating to the fundamental niche and by biotic interactions relating to the realized niche. Both filters include parameters related to functional traits and their variation along environmental gradients. Here, we infer the general importance of environmental filtering of a functional trait determining local community assembly within insular adaptive radiations on the example of Caribbean Anolis lizards. We constructed maps for the probability of presence of Anolis ecomorphs (ecology-morphology-behavior specialists) on the Greater Antilles and overlaid these to estimate ecomorph community completeness (ECC) over the landscape. We then tested for differences in environmental parameter spaces among isl

SUBMITTER: Wollenberg KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3925381 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature