Article
Forestry
Jake J. Grossman
Summary: The study compared the climatic niches of temperate maple taxa and assessed phylogenetic and continental patterns in niche overlap using global distribution data and new, fossil-calibrated phylogenies. The results suggest that there is limited evidence of phylogenetic signal in niche axes and overlap, indicating adaptive evolution in the genus's radiation out of East Asia.
Article
Plant Sciences
Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Jian Zhang, Yi Jin, Meichen Jiang
Summary: This study fills a critical knowledge gap by examining the relationships between the phylogenetic structure of ferns and climatic factors. The findings show that temperature-related variables explain more variation in phylogenetic structure than precipitation-related variables, and climate extremes have a stronger relationship than climate seasonality.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Yi Jin
Summary: The composition of fern assemblages along the Himalayan elevational gradient in Nepal shows strong signatures of evolutionary processes. Variables related to temperature and climatic extremes tend to play a more important role than precipitation- and seasonality-related variables in driving fern phylogenetic structure.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Danfeng Li, Yanjun Du, Wubing Xu, Danxiao Peng, Richard Primack, Guoke Chen, Ling Feng Mao, Keping Ma
Summary: The study found that phylogenetic signals in FDT increased with elevation and latitude. Pagel's lambda of FDT was negatively correlated with clade age but positively correlated with NRI. The primary variable affecting the phylogenetic signal of FDT for herbaceous species was precipitation in the wettest quarter.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jianchao Liang, Zhifeng Ding, Ganwen Lie, Zhixin Zhou, Zhixiang Zhang, Huijian Hu
Summary: This study examines the elevational patterns of phylogenetic diversity and structure of seed plants in the Gyirong Valley, the longest valley in China's central Himalayas. The results show a hump-shaped pattern in phylogenetic diversity, with overdispersion at lower elevations and clustering at higher elevations. Climate factors have the highest explanatory power in understanding these patterns.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Andreas Prinzing, Sandrine Pavoine, Herve Jactel, Joaquin Hortal, Stephan M. Hennekens, Wim A. Ozinga, Igor V. Bartish, Matthew R. Helmus, Ingolf Kuhn, Daniel S. Moen, Evan Weiher, Martin Brandle, Marten Winter, Cyrille Violle, Patrick Venail, Oliver Purschke, Benjamin Yguel
Summary: Research shows that in undisturbed and stressful habitats, local species exhibit high phylogenetic signal in their functional traits. The average local phylogenetic signal decreases with disturbance but does not have a consistent relationship with stress. In disturbed habitats, species may have evolutionarily divergent trait values, potentially influenced by local assembly and environmental fluctuations sustaining different trait values within lineages.
Article
Plant Sciences
Achyut Kumar Banerjee, Fengxiao Tan, Hui Feng, Xinru Liang, Jiakai Wang, Minghui Yin, Hao Peng, Yuting Lin, Nannan Zhang, Yelin Huang
Summary: This study aimed to understand the phylogenetic relationship between alien plant species at different stages of invasion and the influence of environmental filtering process on this relationship. The results showed that phylogenetically related species tend to cluster together at smaller spatial scales, indicating the importance of environmental filtering process. The presence of close relatives in the community may facilitate the successful naturalization and invasion of introduced alien species. Temperature has a stronger effect on phylogenetic patterns than precipitation, especially at smaller spatial scales. Different plant families showed different phylogenetic patterns, but all tend to form more clustered assemblages.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Hong Zhu, Xiangui Yi, Yongfu Li, Yifan Duan, Xianrong Wang, Libing Zhang
Summary: This study focused on the distribution and richness patterns of Prunus dielsiana, a wild cherry species in subtropical China, and found that climatic factors, particularly Temperature Seasonality, played a key role in shaping the geographical patterns of the species. It was also observed that habitat filtering dominated by limiting hydrothermic factors is the primary driving process of the diversity pattern of P. dielsiana in the subtropical region.
JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Tao Deng, Yi Jin
Summary: The phylogenetic structures of more recently evolved and diversified clades of pteridophytes are consistent with the tropical niche conservatism hypothesis, suggesting that the age of the taxon, its physiological adaptations, and global climatic changes during its evolutionary history are reflected in current plant assemblages.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Adrian Garcia-Rodriguez, Bernd Lenzner, Clara Marino, Chunlong Liu, Julian A. Velasco, Celine Bellard, Jonathan M. Jeschke, Hanno Seebens, Franz Essl
Summary: Shifts between native and alien climatic niches pose challenges for predicting biological invasions, especially for insular species. This study analyzed alien occurrences of endemic insular amphibians, reptiles, and birds and found that climatic mismatches were common in invasions of birds and reptiles, but less common in amphibians. Several predictors were identified for climatic mismatches, which varied among taxonomic groups.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hong Qian, Brody Sandel
Summary: Understanding the causes and consequences of biological invasions is a challenge in ecology and conservation biology. Predicting which naturalized species become invasive is crucial for invasion management. This study examined the phylogenetic relatedness of invasive angiosperms compared to naturalized species in North America, finding that invasive species tend to be phylogenetically clustered and this clustering is more pronounced in regions with lower temperature and precipitation. This pattern may reflect the evolutionary conservatism of invasive traits and the greater invasiveness of species with novel trait combinations.
Article
Ecology
Denner S. Vieira, Jorge Garcia-Giron, Jani Heino, Maija Toivanen, Aveliina Helm, Janne Alahuhta
Summary: The study found no evidence of range size conservatism among freshwater plants in Europe and North America, indicating that closely related species do not necessarily maintain similar geographic ranges. Additionally, it suggests that it is challenging to define different range sizes of freshwater plants based on species traits and predict unknown distributions based on known attributes of related species.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hong Qian, Marcel Rejmanek, Shenhua Qian
Summary: The study found that invasive species are phylogenetically clustered subsets of naturalized species, and more harmful invasive species show stronger phylogenetic clustering in their naturalized species pools. These findings have significant implications for predicting and controlling invasive species based on phylogenetic relatedness.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hong Qian
Summary: The study aims to examine the phylogenetic relatedness of invasive angiosperm species at global, continental, and regional scales, and its relationship with climate conditions. The findings show that invasive angiosperm assemblages are phylogenetically clustered subsets of their naturalized species pools, with greater clustering in regions with lower temperature and precipitation. These results have significant implications for predicting and controlling invasive species based on phylogenetic relatedness among naturalized species.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Hong Qian, Yong Cao, Cindy Chu, Daijiang Li, Brody Sandel, Xianli Wang, Yi Jin, Janne Soininen
Summary: This study examined various aspects of beta-diversity patterns in North American freshwater fishes, finding high congruence in geographical patterns of total TBD and PBD, turnover, and nestedness components among neighboring watersheds. The results also highlighted the opposite patterns of basal-weighted PBD compared to tip-weighted PBD, and the stronger influence of geographical distance over climate similarity in determining beta-diversity in freshwater fish assemblages.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Pierre Gauzere, Benjamin Blonder, Pierre Denelle, Bertrand Fournier, Matthias Grenie, Leo Delalandre, Tamara Munkemuller, Francois Munoz, Cyrille Violle, Wilfried Thuiller
Summary: In addition to local species abundance, functional trait distinctiveness of species is now recognized as a key driver of community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. The scale at which species pool is defined has a significant impact on assessing the functional distinctiveness of species. Our study provides empirical evidence that measures of ecological originality are strongly scale-dependent, and emphasizes the importance of considering scale dependencies in ecological research to avoid biased or wrong conclusions.
Article
Ecology
Francois Munoz, Christopher A. Klausmeier, Pierre Gauzere, Gaurav Kandlikar, Elena Litchman, Nicolas Mouquet, Annette Ostling, Wilfried Thuiller, Adam C. Algar, Arnaud Auber, Marc W. Cadotte, Leo Delalandre, Pierre Denelle, Brian J. Enquist, Claire Fortunel, Matthias Grenie, Nicolas Loiseau, Lucie Mahaut, Anthony Maire, David Mouillot, Catalina Pimiento, Cyrille Violle, Nathan J. B. Kraft
Summary: Recent work has demonstrated that evaluating the distinctiveness of functional traits, which is the average trait distance of a species to other species in a community, can provide valuable insights into the dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. However, the underlying ecological mechanisms that drive the emergence and persistence of functionally distinct species are not well understood. In this study, we address this issue by considering a heterogeneous fitness landscape, where functional dimensions encompass peaks that represent trait combinations resulting in positive population growth rates in a community. We identify four ecological cases that contribute to the emergence and persistence of functionally distinct species and provide examples and guidelines to distinguish between them. Additionally, we explore how stochastic dispersal limitation can lead to functional distinctiveness. Our framework offers a novel perspective on the relationship between fitness landscape heterogeneity and the functional composition of ecological assemblages.
Article
Ecology
Billur Bektas, Wilfried Thuiller, Julien Renaud, Maya Gueguen, Irene Calderon-Sanou, Jean-Gabriel Valay, Marie-Pascale Colace, Tamara Munkemueller
Summary: We propose a novel framework that combines spatially explicit sampling, plant trait information, and a warming experiment to study plant community re-assembly during climate warming. Our framework separates the signals of environmental filtering and competition by considering spatial distance between individuals. In an elevational transplant experiment in the French Alps, we found common signals of environmental filtering and competition in all communities, with stronger environmental filtering in alpine communities and dominance of symmetrical competition in control and warmed alpine communities.
Article
Ecology
Giovanni Poggiato, Pierre Gauzere, Camille Martinez-Almoyna, Gabrielle Deschamps, Julien Renaud, Cyrille Violle, Tamara Munkemueller, Wilfried Thuiller
Summary: Understanding how combinations of ecological traits at the community-level vary with environmental conditions is crucial for addressing the biodiversity crisis. However, most previous studies have overlooked the inherent correlations between these traits, leading to unrealistic predictions. We propose a framework that incorporates joint trait distribution models to account for these correlations and provide more accurate predictions. Our framework enhances the understanding and prediction of trait distributions, moving functional biogeography towards a more predictive science. Overall, this framework has a high level of importance and would receive a score of 8 out of 10.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Jeremy Gauthier, Matthias Borer, Emmanuel F. A. Toussaint, Julia Bilat, Horst Kippenberg, Nadir Alvarez
Summary: To assess the status of the genus Oreina and understand its evolutionary history, researchers conducted a study on 148 museum specimens. The study revealed that Oreina species form a distinct clade from Chrysolina and proposed some taxonomic status updates. The study highlights the importance of museum collections for molecular analysis.
SYSTEMATIC ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Marc Ohlmann, Catherine Matias, Giovanni Poggiato, Stephane Dray, Wilfried Thuiller, Vincent Miele
Summary: Separating the effects of environmental factors and interspecific interactions on species distributions has been a major challenge in community ecology. A new statistical model called ELGRIN has been developed to address this challenge by combining knowledge on interspecific interactions, environmental data, and species occurrences. The model has been successfully tested on simulated and empirical data, and applied to vertebrate trophic networks in the European Alps. It has been found that factors such as altitude, species richness, and connectance significantly influence the overall effect of biotic interactions on species distributions.
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Nicolas Le Guillarme, Wilfried Thuiller
Summary: This paper presents a practical approach to constructing a biodiversity knowledge graph from heterogeneous and distributed data sources, and shows how information can be retrieved from the graph to support multi-trophic studies.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Clement Valle, Giovanni Poggiato, Wilfried Thuiller, Frederic Jiguet, Karine Prince, Isabelle Le Viol
Summary: The study examines the influence of data type, resolution, and sampling size on the species associations identified by joint species distribution models (jSDM). It finds that the associations are mainly affected by resolution and sampling size, rather than data type. The study also reveals a positive correlation between species associations and functional similarity, challenging the expectation of negative biotic interactions. Furthermore, the high-resolution residual species associations are shown to contain valuable information for enhancing predictive performance through conditional predictions.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Wilfried Thuiller, Irene Calderon-Sanou, Loic Chalmandrier, Pierre Gauzere, Louise M. J. O'Connor, Marc Ohlmann, Giovanni Poggiato, Tamara Munkemuller
Summary: Biotic interactions, the backbone of ecological communities, can be studied through empirical observation, inference from co-occurrences, and construction of potential interaction networks. These three approaches have respective strengths and limitations, but integration of these approaches shows promise for enhancing our understanding and application of interaction biogeography.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Franz Essl, Adrian Garcia-Rodriguez, Bernd Lenzner, Jake M. Alexander, Cesar Capinha, Pierre Gauzere, Antoine Guisan, Ingolf Kuehn, Jonathan Lenoir, David M. Richardson, Sabine B. Rumpf, Jens-Christian Svenning, Wilfried Thuiller, Damaris Zurell, Stefan Dullinger
Summary: The rapid environmental changes in the Anthropocene era have caused shifts in species' spatial distributions, with lagged responses leading to disequilibrium states. The effects of different types of environmental change and time lags on species responses have not been adequately explored, which has implications for biodiversity assessments, scenarios, and models, thus impacting policymaking and conservation science. This perspective piece examines lagged species responses to environmental change and discusses ways to improve the calibration of species distribution models (SDMs) to account for time lags and enhance biodiversity science and policy.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Biology
David Ortiz, Stano Pekar, Julia Bilat, Sepideh Shafaie, Nadir Alvarez, Jeremy Gauthier
Summary: Using hyRAD technique, we reconstructed the phylogeny of Zodarion and estimated the evolution of body size and colour. The study revealed a highly dynamic evolution of these traits with multiple transitions and convergences across the group. This research is important for understanding the adaptations of species to ant specialization.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Gabrielle Deschamps, Giovanni Poggiato, Philipp Brun, Clovis Galiez, Wilfried Thuiller
Summary: Directly modeling community-level indices provides more accurate spatial predictions and avoids over-prediction of species compared to the predict-first approach.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Trishna Dutta, Marta De Barba, Nuria Selva, Ancuta Cotovelea Fedorca, Luigi Maiorano, Wilfried Thuiller, Andreas Zedrosser, Johannes Signer, Femke Pflueger, Shane Frank, Pablo M. Lucas, Niko Balkenhol
Summary: Connected landscapes can enhance the effectiveness of protected areas by promoting movement and gene flow between populations, thus increasing species persistence in fragmented habitats. This study develops a quantitative method to identify connectivity umbrellas at multiple scales and demonstrates its application to the large mammal community in continental Europe. The results show that the number, identity, and attributes of connectivity umbrellas are influenced by spatial scale and human influence on the landscape.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yue Dou, Cecilia Zagaria, Louise O'Connor, Wilfried Thuiller, Peter H. Verburg
Summary: This study uses a novel scenario approach to assess the various ways in which biodiversity targets can be achieved. The results show that meeting these targets will result in significant changes to Europe's land systems, with different impacts in different regions. These simulations go beyond existing methods and can facilitate constructive dialogue and consensus-building.
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Simone Giachello, Isabel Cantera, Alexis Carteron, Silvio Marta, Cristina Cipriano, Alessia Guerrieri, Wilfried Thuiller, Gentile Francesco Ficetola
Summary: Protists are important in soil communities but their functional diversity is not well understood. This study proposes a functional framework for soil protists and applies it to a global dataset. The results reveal different nutritional and habitat preferences among soil protists. The framework can be used to estimate functional diversity and analyze food webs.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2023)