Transcript
ELEVATION, CRYPSIS AND PHYLOGENETIC COMMUNITY STRUCTURE OF NEOTROPICAL ARTHROPODS
Canadian Society of Ecology and EvolutionFriday, July 8, 2016
@Alex_Smith_Antssalex@uoguelph.ca
M. Alex Smith1, K. Pare1, C. Warne1, W. Hallwachs2 and D. H. Janzen2
1 Department of Integrative BiologyUniversity of Guelph
2 Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania
Kate Pare
Connor Warne
Dry forest
Rain forest
Cloud forest
Collection Localities
Área de Conservación Guanacaste
In an area ~3.5x the area of the city of St. John’s there are estimated to reside 3% of the world’s biodiversity
R² = 0.9611
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0 500 1000 1500
Average Daily M
ax: Tem
p (°C)
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04‐Dec‐12 04‐Dec‐13 04‐Dec‐14 04‐Dec
Daily M
ax: Tem
p (°C)
Questions:
• Who lives where?• How much overlap?• Is this changing?• Functional:phylogenetic?
Smith, M. A., Hallwachs, W. and Janzen, D. H. (2014), Diversity and phylogenetic community structure of ants along a Costa Rican elevationalgradient. Ecography, 37: 720–731. doi: 10.1111/j.1600‐0587.2013.00631.x
Elevational RangeAn example with Gnamptogenys ants
• Most species found at only 1 site• Small number of sp. with a range
Elevational RangeAn example with Collembola
• Some species found at only 1 site• Larger number of sp. with a range
Chord Diagram of elevational beta‐diversity
NB: the colours only represent the rows in the comparison and are only present to facilitate the visualisation of the pairwise connections.
• So there is strong genetic differentiation at a fine spatial scale.
• Is there corresponding functional diversity?
• “Ant space”
Ants in Space?
https://youtu.be/8j0WNUayx3U
Functionally significant morphological features
F= 3.81, df=2, p=0.023
F=16.069, df=2, p<0.000
Morphospace along an elevational gradient
• Largest “ant‐space” occurs with the greatest diversity
• Dry & cloud forest occupy a subset of this “ant‐space”
• These subsets represent smaller body measurements of features that are functionally associated with predation.
• This does not bode well for the future.
• The largest “Collembola‐space” occurs in the dry forest. Not more diverse. Range of ranges.
• Rain & cloud forest occupy a different portion of this “Collembola‐space”
• Traits here are those associated with life at the surface.
1. Turnover: extremely small communities• Climate change is affecting and will
continue to affect turnover.• Vulnerable, vulnerable vulnerable!
2. Degree of coupling between genetic divergence and morphospace is not simple• Related in ants, not so much in
Collembola
3. What next?• Community characterisation• Expansion of functional traits (ie. related
to abiotic variables of thermal ecology) • Taxonomic expansion
Messages
Acknowledgements• The ACG for protecting it all!
• The ACG parataxonomists for collecting, rearing and databasing ACG insects.
• ALL the graduate and undergraduate students and volunteers in the Smith Lab for their enthusiasm, questions, dedication and love for the little things.
• NSERC Discovery Grant to MAS
@Alex_Smith_Antssalex@uoguelph.ca
Come & work with us!http://malexsmith.com/
Chris Ho
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