Spatial arrangement overrules environmental factors to structure native and non-native assemblages of synanthropic harvestmen.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how space affects the occurrence of native and non-native species is essential for inferring processes that shape communities. However, studies considering spatial and environmental variables for the entire community - as well as for the native and non-native assemblages in a single study - are scarce for animals. Harvestmen communities in central Europe have undergone drastic turnovers during the past decades, with several newly immigrated species, and thus provide a unique system to study such questions. We studied the wall-dwelling harvestmen communities from 52 human settlements in Luxembourg and found the assemblages to be largely dominated by non-native species (64% of specimens). Community structure was analysed using Moran's eigenvector maps as spatial variables, and

SUBMITTER: Muster C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3942446 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature