Authors: Philipp T Wiescher Jessica M C PearceDuvet Donald H Feener
Publish Date: 2012/02/01
Volume: 169, Issue: 4, Pages: 1063-1074
Abstract
Species should only persist in local communities if they have functional traits that are compatible with habitatspecific environmental conditions Consequently pronounced regional environmental gradients should produce environmental filtering or a traitbased spatial segregation of species It is critical to quantify the links between species’ functional traits and their environment in order to reveal the relative importance of this process to community assembly and promote understanding of the impacts of ongoing environmental changes We investigated this relationship using epigaeic ants in an environmentally heterogeneous region of Florida We found evidence for environmental filtering as environmental conditions such as groundcover surface temperature vapor pressure deficit and plant diversity were strongly correlated with assemblage composition Certain species traits appeared particularly important to persistence 1 ants in environments with less groundcover have relatively longer legs but do not differ in size 2 ants in hotter environments exhibit greater thermal tolerances and 3 ants in hotter and drier environments do not exhibit greater desiccation resistance These findings show surface complexity and temperature may interact with morphology and physiology to impact the spatial distribution of ants and underscore the importance of climate change Climate warming is predicted to alter assemblage composition competitive dynamics and consequently impact ecosystem processes We suggest environmental filters acting at regional scales as shown here act in tandem with more frequently studied localscale competitive interactions to delimit ant community assemblagesWe thank Mark Deyrup for help identifying species discussing results and sharing laboratory space A Briles J Barnett A LeeBibo and R Gurr provided assistance in the field and with sample sorting Comments by Phil Lester and two anonymous reviewers improved the manuscript This work was supported by Archbold Biological Station graduate research internships and a NSF GK12 Fellowship to PT Wiescher a NSF Predoctoral Fellowship and International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to JMC PearceDuvet and NSF Grants DEB0316524 and DGE0841233 to DH Feener Jr
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