Functional and phylogenetic diversity of plant communities differently affect the structure of flower-visitor interactions and reveal convergences in floral traits
Functional and phylogenetic diversity of plant communities differently affect the structure of flower-visitor interactions and reveal convergences in floral traits
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DOI：
10.1007/s10682-014-9747-2
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发表时间：
2015-05-01
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Keller, Alexander
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Junker, Robert R.;Bluethgen, Nico;Keller, Alexander
群落生态学已经从描述性研究转向更加机械化的方法，询问群落组成的原因和后果以及物种之间的相互作用。许多生态过程是由功能群（不一定是物种）的存在或不存在决定的。因此，功能性状的多样性，即它们的种间变异，是植物群落的一个关键特征，并对其他营养水平产生影响。在基于定量花卉访问者网络和花卉性状定量测量的模拟研究中，我们测试了植物群落的功能 FDiv 和系统发育多样性 PDiv 如何影响动物物种丰富度和多样性以及网络特性。在植物与二次抽样群落中的动物保持定性和定量相互作用的假设的限制下，我们发现功能多样化的植物群落支持大量的动物物种（不一定是动物多样性）。此外，网络结构更具互补性（更高的值），并且包含更多数量的未实现链接（低连通性），因此功能多样化的植物群落中的消费者之间的资源分配比具有较低 FDiv 的群落更高。对于植物群落的系统发育多样性 PDiv，我们发现了对比效应，这可能是通过功能性状的分歧或趋同来解释的。我们的结果支持这样的观点，即功能多样化的植物群落提供了大量的生态位，这些生态位可以被大量专门针对一组特定花卉性状的花卉访问物种占据。因此，花卉的功能性状不仅可以作为屏障，将一些花客排除在外，而且还可以作为吸引人的特征，促进与其他动物物种的相互作用。我们的研究促进了基于特征的生态位和功能组的定义，并可能刺激测试该模拟预测的实地研究。
Community ecology has moved from descriptive studies to more mechanistic approaches asking questions about causes and consequences of community composition and interactions between species. Many ecological processes are shaped by the presence or absence of functional groups, not necessarily species. Thus, the diversity of functional traits, i.e. their interspecific variation, is a key feature of plant communities with consequences on other trophic levels. In a simulation study based on a quantitative flower-visitor network and quantitative measurements of flower traits, we tested how the functional FDiv and phylogenetic diversity PDiv of plant communities affect animal species richness and diversity as well as network properties. Within the limitations of the assumption that plants maintain the qualitative and quantitative interactions with animals in subsampled communities, we found that functionally diverse plant communities support a large number of animal species (not necessarily animal diversity). Additionally, the network structure was more complementarily specialized (higher -values) and comprised a larger number of unrealized links (low connectance) and thus a higher partitioning of resources among consumers in functionally diverse plant communities than in communities with a lower FDiv. For the phylogenetic diversity PDiv of plant communities we found contrasting effects, which may be explained by divergences or convergences of functional traits. Our results support the notion that functionally diverse plant communities offer a large number of niches that can be occupied by a larger number of flower visiting species specialized to a specific set of flower traits. Thus, functional flower traits serve as barriers that exclude some flower visitors but also as attractive features that facilitate interactions with other animal species. Our study fosters a trait-based definition of niches and functional groups and may stimulate field studies testing the predictions of this simulation.