Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding Birds
Spatial variation in community composition may be driven by a variety of processes, including environmental filtering and dispersal limitation. While work has been conducted on the relative importance of these processes on various taxa and at varying resolutions, tests using high-resolution empirica...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-03-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.620062/full |
| _version_ | 1818914884535975936 |
|---|---|
| author | Joseph P. Wayman Jonathan P. Sadler Thomas A. M. Pugh Thomas A. M. Pugh Thomas E. Martin Joseph A. Tobias Thomas J. Matthews Thomas J. Matthews |
| author_facet | Joseph P. Wayman Jonathan P. Sadler Thomas A. M. Pugh Thomas A. M. Pugh Thomas E. Martin Joseph A. Tobias Thomas J. Matthews Thomas J. Matthews |
| author_sort | Joseph P. Wayman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Spatial variation in community composition may be driven by a variety of processes, including environmental filtering and dispersal limitation. While work has been conducted on the relative importance of these processes on various taxa and at varying resolutions, tests using high-resolution empirical data across large spatial extents are sparse. Here, we use a dataset on the presence/absence of breeding bird species collected at the 10 km × 10 km scale across the whole of Britain. Pairwise spatial taxonomic and functional beta diversity, and the constituent components of each (turnover and nestedness/richness loss or gain), were calculated alongside two other measures of functional change (mean nearest taxon distance and mean pairwise distance). Predictor variables included climate and land use measures, as well as a measure of elevation, human influence, and habitat diversity. Generalized dissimilarity modeling was used to analyze the contribution of each predictor variable to variation in the different beta diversity metrics. Overall, we found that there was a moderate and unique proportion of the variance explained by geographical distance per se, which could highlight the role of dispersal limitation in community dissimilarity. Climate, land use, and human influence all also contributed to the observed patterns, but a large proportion of the explained variance in beta diversity was shared between these variables and geographical distance. However, both taxonomic nestedness and functional nestedness were uniquely predicted by a combination of land use, human influence, elevation, and climate variables, indicating a key role for environmental filtering. These findings may have important conservation implications in the face of a warming climate and future land use change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T23:53:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-840eca9eb8444a86988e3af35572f1a8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-701X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T23:53:29Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-840eca9eb8444a86988e3af35572f1a82022-12-21T20:01:04ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution2296-701X2021-03-01910.3389/fevo.2021.620062620062Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding BirdsJoseph P. Wayman0Jonathan P. Sadler1Thomas A. M. Pugh2Thomas A. M. Pugh3Thomas E. Martin4Joseph A. Tobias5Thomas J. Matthews6Thomas J. Matthews7School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United KingdomSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United KingdomSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United KingdomDepartment of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Lund, SwedenOperation Wallacea, Spilsby, United KingdomDepartment of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, United KingdomSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United KingdomCentre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes-Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores–Depto de Ciências Agráriase Engenharia do Ambiente, Angra do Heroísmo, PortugalSpatial variation in community composition may be driven by a variety of processes, including environmental filtering and dispersal limitation. While work has been conducted on the relative importance of these processes on various taxa and at varying resolutions, tests using high-resolution empirical data across large spatial extents are sparse. Here, we use a dataset on the presence/absence of breeding bird species collected at the 10 km × 10 km scale across the whole of Britain. Pairwise spatial taxonomic and functional beta diversity, and the constituent components of each (turnover and nestedness/richness loss or gain), were calculated alongside two other measures of functional change (mean nearest taxon distance and mean pairwise distance). Predictor variables included climate and land use measures, as well as a measure of elevation, human influence, and habitat diversity. Generalized dissimilarity modeling was used to analyze the contribution of each predictor variable to variation in the different beta diversity metrics. Overall, we found that there was a moderate and unique proportion of the variance explained by geographical distance per se, which could highlight the role of dispersal limitation in community dissimilarity. Climate, land use, and human influence all also contributed to the observed patterns, but a large proportion of the explained variance in beta diversity was shared between these variables and geographical distance. However, both taxonomic nestedness and functional nestedness were uniquely predicted by a combination of land use, human influence, elevation, and climate variables, indicating a key role for environmental filtering. These findings may have important conservation implications in the face of a warming climate and future land use change.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.620062/fullavifaunabeta-diversitycommunity compositionGDMspatialclimate |
| spellingShingle | Joseph P. Wayman Jonathan P. Sadler Thomas A. M. Pugh Thomas A. M. Pugh Thomas E. Martin Joseph A. Tobias Thomas J. Matthews Thomas J. Matthews Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding Birds Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution avifauna beta-diversity community composition GDM spatial climate |
| title | Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding Birds |
| title_full | Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding Birds |
| title_fullStr | Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding Birds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding Birds |
| title_short | Identifying the Drivers of Spatial Taxonomic and Functional Beta-Diversity of British Breeding Birds |
| title_sort | identifying the drivers of spatial taxonomic and functional beta diversity of british breeding birds |
| topic | avifauna beta-diversity community composition GDM spatial climate |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.620062/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT josephpwayman identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds AT jonathanpsadler identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds AT thomasampugh identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds AT thomasampugh identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds AT thomasemartin identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds AT josephatobias identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds AT thomasjmatthews identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds AT thomasjmatthews identifyingthedriversofspatialtaxonomicandfunctionalbetadiversityofbritishbreedingbirds |