Using phylogenetic trees to test for character displacement: a model and an example from a desert mammal community
Using phylogenetic trees to test for character displacement: a model and an example from a desert mammal community
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DOI：
10.1890/11-0400.1
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发表时间：
2012-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Meiri, Shai
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Davies, T. Jonathan;Cooper, Natalie;Meiri, Shai
特征在群落中的分布被认为提供了关于构成群落组成的进化和生态力量的信息。生态特征置换(群落内相互作用的物种种群之间的进化差异)以及社区范围的特征置换(甚至通过物种分类将物种特征分散在群落内)已被广泛报道，并通常被解释为种间竞争的证据。然而，定义一个适当的零分布来评估一个群落内观察到的性状分布已被证明是有争议的。系统发生学方法提供了一种评估群落结构的替代方法，但这种方法也需要适当的零，并且通常忽略了群落内进化动态的潜力。在这里，我们提出了一个新的系统发育框架，它使用进化预期来生成一个简单的零模型，即预期的特征在共同出现的物种中的分布。利用性状变化的随机布朗运动模型，我们证明了预期的社区范围内性状的分散程度随着系统发育树的形状而变化。然后，我们使用哺乳动物的体重数据来评估系统发育预测特征经验分布的准确性，并发现预测的特征分布与观察到的特征分布之间存在很强的相关性。因此，我们认为，偏离系统发育预期可能为评估竞争在塑造群落结构中的作用提供了一个有用的工具。最后，我们使用以色列约特瓦塔一个小型陆生哺乳动物群落的体重和系统发育的经验数据，展示了我们方法的实用性，并揭示了与生态和社区范围的特征置换相一致的证据。我们的方法结合了生态学和进化论的方法，为探索群落结构提供了一个新的框架。
The distribution of traits within communities is thought to provide information on the evolutionary and ecological forces that structure community composition. Ecological character displacement (evolutionary divergence among populations of interacting species within a community), as well as community-wide character displacement (even dispersion of species traits within a community via species sorting), have been widely reported and are typically interpreted as evidence for interspecific competition. However, defining an appropriate null distribution with which to assess the observed distribution of traits within a community has proved controversial. Phylogenetic methods provide an alternative approach to evaluating community structure, but such methods also require an appropriate null and have typically overlooked the potential for evolutionary dynamics within communities. Here, we present a novel phylogenetic framework that uses evolutionary expectations to generate a simple null model of the expected distribution of traits among co-occurring species. Using a stochastic Brownian motion model of trait change, we illustrate that the expected community-wide dispersion of traits varies with phylogenetic tree shape. We then use data on body mass for mammals to evaluate the accuracy with which phylogeny can predict the empirical distribution of traits and find a strong correlation between predicted and observed trait distributions. We suggest that deviations from phylogenetic expectations may therefore provide a useful tool for evaluating the role of competition in shaping community structure. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of our approach using empirical data on body mass and a phylogeny for a small community of terrestrial mammals in Yotvata, Israel, and reveal evidence consistent with ecological and community-wide character displacement. Our method unites ecological and evolutionary approaches, and it provides a novel framework for exploring community structure.