Evolution of a key trait greatly affects underground community assembly process through habitat adaptation in earthworms.

ABSTRACT: Underground community assemblies have not been studied well compared with aboveground communities, despite their importance for our understanding of whole ecosystems. To investigate underground community assembly over evolutionary timescales, we examined terrestrial earthworm communities (Oligochaeta: Haplotaxida) in conserved mountainous primary forests in Japan as a model system. We collected 553 earthworms mostly from two dominant families, the Megascolecidae and the Lumbricidae, from 12 sites. We constructed a molecular taxonomic unit tree based on the analysis of three genes to examine the effects of a biogeographic factor (dispersal ability) and an evolutionary factor (habitat adaptation) on the earthworm community assembly process. The phylogenetic distance of the earthworm communit

SUBMITTER: Ikeda H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5792615 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature