Environment- and trait-mediated scaling of tree occupancy in forests worldwide

作  者:Ren HB*, Keil P, Mi XC, Ma KP, Hao ZQ, Ye WH, Lin LX, Valencia R, Fletcher CD, Thomas DW, Howe RW, Lutz J, Bourg NA, Su SH, Sun IF, Zhu L, Chang LW, Wang XH, Du XJ, Kenfack D, Chuyong GB, Jetz W*
影响因子:5.667
刊物名称:Global Ecology and Biogeography
出版年份:2019
卷:28  期:8  页码:1155-1167

论文摘要:

Aim

The relationship between the proportion of sites occupied by a species and the area of a site [occupancy–area relationship (OAR)] offers key information for biodiversity management and has long fascinated ecologists. We quantified the variation in OAR for 3,157 woody species in 17 forest plots worldwide and tested the relative importance of environment and species traits for explaining this variation and evaluated overall model predictive ability.

Location

Global.

Time period

Early 21st century.

Major taxa studied

Woody plants.

Methods

We used mixedeffect regression to examine the observed shape of the OAR (its slope) against speciesspecific and plotwide predictors: coarsegrain occupancy, tree size, plot species richness, energy availability and topographic complexity.

Results

We found large variation in OAR slopes, and the variation was strongest among species within plots. The OAR slopes showed a latitudinal trend and were steeper near the equator. As predicted, coarsegrain occupancy and tree size negatively affected OAR slopes, whereas species richness had a positive effect and explained most of the variance between plots. Although hypothesized directionalities were broadly confirmed, traits and environment had relatively limited overall predictive power.

Main conclusions

These results document the variation of the OAR for 3,157 species at nearglobal extent. We found a latitudinal gradient in OAR slopes and confirmed key hypothesized predictors. But at this global extent and over the large set of species analysed, the remaining unexplained variation in OAR slopes was substantial. Nevertheless, this largescale empirical analysis of the OAR offers an initial step towards a more general use of OARs for the finescale prediction of species distributions and abundance.

全文链接:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/geb.12922