Different relationships between temporal phylogenetic turnover and phylogenetic similarity and in two forests were detected by a new null model.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ecologists have been monitoring community dynamics with the purpose of understanding the rates and causes of community change. However, there is a lack of monitoring of community dynamics from the perspective of phylogeny.

Methods/principle findings

We attempted to understand temporal phylogenetic turnover in a 50 ha tropical forest (Barro Colorado Island, BCI) and a 20 ha subtropical forest (Dinghushan in southern China, DHS). To obtain temporal phylogenetic turnover under random conditions, two null models were used. The first shuffled names of species that are widely used in community phylogenetic analyses. The second simulated demographic processes with careful consideration on the variation in dispersal ability among species and the variations in mortality bo

SUBMITTER: Huang JX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3991709 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature