Evaluating community-environment relationships along fine to broad taxonomic resolutions reveals evolutionary forces underlying community assembly.

ABSTRACT: We propose a method for detecting evolutionary forces underlying community assembly by quantifying the strength of community-environment relationships hierarchically along taxonomic ranks. This approach explores the potential role of phylogenetic conservatism on habitat preferences: wherein, phylogenetically related taxa are expected to exhibit similar environmental responses. Thus, when niches are conserved, broader taxonomic classification should not diminish the strength of community-environment relationships and may even yield stronger associations by summarizing occurrences and abundances of ecologically equivalent finely resolved taxa. In contrast, broader taxonomic classification should weaken community-environment relationships when niches are under great divergence (that is, by co

SUBMITTER: Lu HP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5148199 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature