Influence of Last Glacial Maximum legacies on functional diversity and community assembly of extant Chinese terrestrial vertebrates

Abstract

Contemporary biodiversity patterns are shaped by not only modern climate but also factors such as past climate fluctuations. Investigating the relative degree of paleoclimate legacy could help us understand the formation of current biodiversity patterns. However, an assessment of this issue in China is lacking. Here, we investigated the phylogenetic structure and functional diversity patterns of Chinese terrestrial vertebrates. We found that Southern China harbored higher functional richness, while Northern and Western China were more phylogenetically clustered with higher functional divergence and evenness, indicating environmental filtering effects. Moreover, we found that drastic Last Glacial Maximum climate changes were positively related to phylogenetic clustering, lower functional richness, and higher functional divergence and evenness, although this effect varied among different taxonomic groups. We further found that mammal communities experiencing more drastic Last Glacial Maximum temperature changes were characterized by "faster" life-history trait values. Our findings provide new evidence of the paleoclimate change legacies influencing contemporary biodiversity patterns that will help guide national-level conservation plans.