Functional volumes, niche packing and species richness: biogeographic legacies in the Congo Basin.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the determinants of species coexistence in complex and species-rich communities is a fundamental goal of ecology. Patterns of species coexistence depend on how biotic interactions and environmental filtering act over ecological and evolutionary time scales. Climatic fluctuations in lowland rainforests of the Congo Basin led to the number of vertebrate species being significantly lower in central compared with northern ecoregions of the Basin. We used null models to assess whether climatic variations affected the community assembly of shrews. A consistent limit to functional similarity of species was not related to species richness. Rather, species richness is constrained by environmental factors, and these constraints are stronger in the central lowland forests of the Congo B

SUBMITTER: Van de Perre F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7137932 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature