What Shapes the Phylogenetic Structure of Anuran Communities in a Seasonal Environment? The Influence of Determinism at Regional Scale to Stochasticity or Antagonistic Forces at Local Scale

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 23;10(6):e0130075. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130075. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Ecological communities are structured by both deterministic and stochastic processes. We investigated phylogenetic patterns at regional and local scales to understand the influences of seasonal processes in shaping the structure of anuran communities in the southern Pantanal wetland, Brazil. We assessed the phylogenetic structure at different scales, using the Net Relatedness Index (NRI), the Nearest Taxon Index (NTI), and phylobetadiversity indexes, as well as a permutation test, to evaluate the effect of seasonality. The anuran community was represented by a non-random set of species with a high degree of phylogenetic relatedness at the regional scale. However, at the local scale the phylogenetic structure of the community was weakly related with the seasonality of the system, indicating that oriented stochastic processes (e.g. colonization, extinction and ecological drift) and/or antagonist forces drive the structure of such communities in the southern Pantanal.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anura / classification*
  • Ecosystem
  • Phylogeny*
  • Seasons*
  • Stochastic Processes*

Grants and funding

Financial support for this work was provided in part by the CNPq (480414/2009-2, 307360/2009-1), the Project Probio 02.02.12, the Project Prodetab 02.02.5.24, and the Projects Embrapa SEG 02.06.06.010.00.00, SEG 02.07.05.003.00.00 and SEG 02.10.06.007.00.00.