Phylogenies and traits provide distinct insights about the historical and contemporary assembly of aquatic insect communities.

ABSTRACT: The assumption that traits and phylogenies can be used as proxies of species niche has faced criticisms. Evidence suggested that phylogenic relatedness is a weak proxy of trait similarity. Moreover, different processes can select different traits, giving opposing signals in null model analyses. To circumvent these criticisms, we separated traits of stream insects based on the concept of α and β niches, which should give clues about assembling pressures expected to act independently of each other. We investigated the congruence between the phylogenetic structure and trait structure of communities using all available traits and all possible combinations of traits (4095 combinations). To account for hierarchical assembling processes, we analyzed patterns on two spatial scales with three pools

SUBMITTER: Saito VS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4863016 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature