Climate and species richness predict the phylogenetic structure of African mammal communities.

ABSTRACT: We have little knowledge of how climatic variation (and by proxy, habitat variation) influences the phylogenetic structure of tropical communities. Here, we quantified the phylogenetic structure of mammal communities in Africa to investigate how community structure varies with respect to climate and species richness variation across the continent. In addition, we investigated how phylogenetic patterns vary across carnivores, primates, and ungulates. We predicted that climate would differentially affect the structure of communities from different clades due to between-clade biological variation. We examined 203 communities using two metrics, the net relatedness (NRI) and nearest taxon (NTI) indices. We used simultaneous autoregressive models to predict community phylogenetic structure from

SUBMITTER: Kamilar JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4398448 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature