Abstract
Functional traits and functional diversity measures are increasingly being used to examine land use effects on biodiversity and community assembly rules. Morphological traits are often used directly as functional traits. However, behavioral characteristics are more difficult to measure. Establishing methods to derive behavioral traits from morphological measurements is necessary to facilitate their inclusion in functional diversity analyses. We collected morphometric data from over 1,700 individuals of 12 species of dung beetle to establish whether morphological measurements can be used as predictors of behavioral traits. We also compared morphology among individuals collected from different land uses (primary forest, logged forest, and oil palm plantation) to identify whether intraspecific differences in morphology vary among land use types. We show that leg and eye measurements can be used to predict dung beetle nesting behavior and period of activity and we used this information to confirm the previously unresolved nesting behavior for Synapsis ritsemae. We found intraspecific differences in morphological traits across different land use types. Phenotypic plasticity was found for traits associated with dispersal (wing aspect ratio and wing loading) and reproductive capacity (abdomen size). The ability to predict behavioral functional traits from morphology is useful where the behavior of individuals cannot be directly observed, especially in tropical environments where the ecology of many species is poorly understood. In addition, we provide evidence that land use change can cause phenotypic plasticity in tropical dung beetle species. Our results reinforce recent calls for intraspecific variation in traits to receive more attention within community ecology.
Highlights
Trait-based approaches are considered essential for establishing general principles in community ecology (McGill, Enquist, Weiher, & Westoby, 2006)
Given the increasing importance of functional trait measures in community ecology, we sought to address two issues to help inform the use of morphological trait measurements
Whether behavioral traits can be predicted from morphological measurements and second, whether there are intraspecific differences in morphological traits across land use types
Summary
Trait-based approaches are considered essential for establishing general principles in community ecology (McGill, Enquist, Weiher, & Westoby, 2006). The use of mean trait values in calculations of functional diversity indices is necessary where the resources are not available to measure all individuals, but is vulnerable to biases where sample sizes are small and could overlook important within-species variation across different treatments or habitat types (Albert, Thuiller, Yoccoz, Douzet et al, 2010; Griffiths, Louzada, Bardgett, & Barlow, 2016; Hulshof & Swenson, 2010). The latter is a particular risk for species that show high morphological plasticity, as morphological traits could vary greatly among individuals of the same species in different habitats (Albert, Thuiller, Yoccoz, Soudant et al, 2010; Petchey & Gaston, 2006). Is there intraspecific variation in dung beetle morphological traits across different tropical land uses?
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