Global dung webs: high trophic generalism of dung beetles along the latitudinal diversity gradient
Global dung webs: high trophic generalism of dung beetles along the latitudinal diversity gradient
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DOI：
10.1111/ele.13095
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发表时间：
2018-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
8.8
通讯作者：
Bluethgen, Nico
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Frank, Kevin;Krell, Frank-Thorsten;Bluethgen, Nico
在全球范围内，已知大多数类群的物种多样性向赤道方向大幅增加。根据理论，较高的消费者资源专一性有利于大量物种的共存，并被认为是纬度多样性梯度的一种解释。然而，只有少数研究支持预测的专业化增长，甚至显示出相反的结果。令人惊讶的是，对食虫动物的分析仍然缺失。因此，我们对蜣螂的营养专化程度进行了分析。我们总结了45项研究，涵盖了资源偏好的994503个人，计算在每个研究区域的粪便特异性。我们的研究结果强调了一个显着的（4.3倍）增加甲虫的多样性吸引到脊椎动物粪便向赤道。然而，它们的资源特异性较低，与多样性无关，并且揭示了粪便资源的高度概括性使用，并且沿着纬度梯度保持相似。
At the global scale, species diversity is known to strongly increase towards the equator for most taxa. According to theory, a higher resource specificity of consumers facilitates the coexistence of a larger number of species and has been suggested as an explanation for the latitudinal diversity gradient. However, only few studies support the predicted increase in specialisation or even showed opposite results. Surprisingly, analyses for detritivores are still missing. Therefore, we performed an analysis on the degree of trophic specialisation of dung beetles. We summarised 45 studies, covering the resource preferences of a total of 994503 individuals, to calculate the dung specificity in each study region. Our results highlighted a significant (4.3-fold) increase in the diversity of beetles attracted to vertebrate dung towards the equator. However, their resource specificity was low, unrelated to diversity and revealed a highly generalistic use of dung resources that remained similar along the latitudinal gradient.