Distance decay 2.0 - A global synthesis of taxonomic and functional turnover in ecological communities.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β-diversity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β-diversity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 148 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments.

Location

Global.

Time period

1990 to present.

Major taxa studied

From diatoms to mammals.

Method

We measured the strength of the decay using ranked Mantel tests (Mantel r) and the rate of distance deca

SUBMITTER: Graco-Roza C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9322010 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature