Abstract
Understanding diversity patterns and the potential mechanisms driving them is a fundamental goal in ecology. Examination of different dimensions of biodiversity can provide insights into the relative importance of different processes acting upon biotas to shape communities. Unfortunately, patterns of diversity are still poorly understood in hyper-diverse tropical countries. Here, we assess spatial variation of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of bat assemblages in one of the least studied Neotropical countries, Bolivia, and determine whether changes in biodiversity are explained by the replacement of species or functional groups, or by differences in richness (i.e., gain or loss of species or functional groups). Further, we evaluate the contribution of phylogenetic and taxonomic changes in the resulting patterns of functional diversity of bats. Using well-sampled assemblages from published studies we examine noctilionoid bats at ten study sites across five ecoregions in Bolivia. Bat assemblages differed from each other in all dimensions of biodiversity considered; however, diversity patterns for each dimension were likely structured by different mechanisms. Within ecoregions, differences were largely explained by species richness, suggesting that the gain or loss of species or functional groups (as opposed to replacement) was driving dissimilarity patterns. Overall, our results suggest that whereas evolutionary processes (i.e., historical connection and dispersal routes across Bolivia) create a template of diversity patterns across the country, ecological mechanisms modify these templates, decoupling the observed patterns of functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in Bolivian bats. Our results suggests that elevation represents an important source of variability among diversity patterns for each dimension of diversity considered. Further, we found that neither phylogenetic nor taxonomic diversity can fully account for patterns of functional diversity, highlighting the need for examining different dimensions of biodiversity of bats in hyperdiverse ecosystems.
Highlights
Elucidating spatial variation in species composition among habitat types (‘diversity patterns’ sensu Magurran [1]), and the potential mechanisms driving these patterns are fundamental goals of ecologists and evolutionary biologists [2]
Because differences in phylogenetic diversity are related to differences in processes operating over longer temporal scales, we suggest that if functional diversity is strongly correlated with phylogenetic diversity, processes shaping Bolivian bat assemblages may be largely explained by historical processes
Our results suggest that both historical and contemporary mechanisms are likely important in shaping bat assemblages in Bolivia
Summary
Elucidating spatial variation in species composition among habitat types (‘diversity patterns’ sensu Magurran [1]), and the potential mechanisms driving these patterns are fundamental goals of ecologists and evolutionary biologists [2]. Evolutionary differences between species are reflected in their phylogenetic relatedness [5]. Because species ecological attributes can be related to their functions within ecosystems, functional diversity measures this variability among species and provides a mechanistic link to ecosystem functioning [7]. Simultaneous examination of these different dimensions of diversity might provide deeper insights into the potential mechanisms underlying patterns of diversity and distribution. How redundant (i.e. correlated) are different dimensions of diversity or how decoupled (i.e. non-correlated) they are, might highlight the potential role of ecological and historical (i.e. geographical and evolutionary) processes driving community assembly [8, 9]. Effectiveness of taxonomic diversity as a surrogate of biodiversity can be examined by comparing how other dimensions that include evolutionary histories and ecological functions (i.e. phylogenetic and functional diversity, respectively) relate to taxonomic diversity
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