TY - JOUR

T1 - Island area, not isolation, drives taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of ants on land-bridge islands

AU - Zhao, Yuhao

AU - Dunn, Robert R.

AU - Zhou, Haonan

AU - Si, Xingfeng

AU - Ding, Ping

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Aim To explore the impact of island area and isolation on multiple dimensions of ant biodiversity (taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity) and the underlying processes of community assembly on islands.Location Thousand Island Lake, Zhejiang, China, created by dam construction in 1959.Taxon Ants.Methods We sampled ants on 33 islands, built a species-level phylogenetic tree and measured five morphological traits of all species collected to estimate taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity. We used multiple linear regression models and null models to examine the relationships between diversity metrics and island variables (area and isolation).Results We recorded 97 ant species on the study islands. We verified positive diversity-area relationships for species richness, phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity. However, although functional and phylogenetic community structure were indistinguishable from random communities, phylogenetic structure tended to be clustered, whereas functional structure tended to be overdispersed. Additionally, we found the structure of ant communities shifted from phylogenetic and functional clustering on smaller islands to phylogenetic and functional overdispersion on larger islands.Main conclusions Our results support the hypothesis that environmental filtering is the dominant process structuring ant communities on smaller islands, and that competitive exclusion becomes more important on larger islands. Thus, island area acts as an important filter even though ant community structure on the study islands was indistinguishable from random communities. Moreover, our results show that environmental filtering influences phylogenetic community structure of ants, whereas competitive exclusion influences functional community structure of ants. These findings highlight the need to examine both phylogenetic and functional diversity in order to understand the mechanisms that govern the assembly of natural communities on islands.

AB - Aim To explore the impact of island area and isolation on multiple dimensions of ant biodiversity (taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity) and the underlying processes of community assembly on islands.Location Thousand Island Lake, Zhejiang, China, created by dam construction in 1959.Taxon Ants.Methods We sampled ants on 33 islands, built a species-level phylogenetic tree and measured five morphological traits of all species collected to estimate taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity. We used multiple linear regression models and null models to examine the relationships between diversity metrics and island variables (area and isolation).Results We recorded 97 ant species on the study islands. We verified positive diversity-area relationships for species richness, phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity. However, although functional and phylogenetic community structure were indistinguishable from random communities, phylogenetic structure tended to be clustered, whereas functional structure tended to be overdispersed. Additionally, we found the structure of ant communities shifted from phylogenetic and functional clustering on smaller islands to phylogenetic and functional overdispersion on larger islands.Main conclusions Our results support the hypothesis that environmental filtering is the dominant process structuring ant communities on smaller islands, and that competitive exclusion becomes more important on larger islands. Thus, island area acts as an important filter even though ant community structure on the study islands was indistinguishable from random communities. Moreover, our results show that environmental filtering influences phylogenetic community structure of ants, whereas competitive exclusion influences functional community structure of ants. These findings highlight the need to examine both phylogenetic and functional diversity in order to understand the mechanisms that govern the assembly of natural communities on islands.

KW - ants

KW - community structure

KW - competitive exclusion

KW - environmental filtering

KW - island biogeography

KW - morphological traits

KW - phylogeny

KW - Thousand Island Lake

KW - DISPERSAL LIMITATION

KW - SPECIES-DIVERSITY

KW - R PACKAGE

KW - COMMUNITY

KW - BIOGEOGRAPHY

KW - ECOLOGY

KW - BIODIVERSITY

KW - COEXISTENCE

KW - DISTURBANCE

KW - RICHNESS

U2 - 10.1111/jbi.13860

DO - 10.1111/jbi.13860

M3 - Journal article

VL - 47

SP - 1627

EP - 1637

JO - Journal of Biogeography

JF - Journal of Biogeography

SN - 0305-0270

IS - 8

ER -