The role of environmental vs. biotic filtering in the structure of European ant communities: A matter of trait type and spatial scale.

ABSTRACT: Functional trait-based approaches are increasingly used for studying the processes underlying community assembly. The relative influence of different assembly rules might depend on the spatial scale of analysis, the environmental context and the type of functional traits considered. By using a functional trait-based approach, we aim to disentangle the relative role of environmental filtering and interspecific competition on the structure of European ant communities according to the spatial scale and the type of trait considered. We used a large database on ant species composition that encompasses 361 ant communities distributed across the five biogeographic regions of Europe; these communities were composed of 155 ant species, which were characterized by 6 functional traits. We then analys

SUBMITTER: Boet O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7029880 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature