Elevation shapes biodiversity patterns through metacommunity-structuring processes

Ming-Chih Chiu; Sicheng Ao; Fengzhi He; Vincent H Resh; Qinghua Cai

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140548

Elevation shapes biodiversity patterns through metacommunity-structuring processes

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Nov 15:743:140548. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140548. Epub 2020 Jun 27.

Authors

Ming-Chih Chiu¹, Sicheng Ao², Fengzhi He³, Vincent H Resh⁴, Qinghua Cai⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China; Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China. Electronic address: qhcai@ihb.ac.cn.

PMID: 32758813
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140548

Abstract

Stochastic (e.g., via species dispersal and ecological drift) and deterministic (e.g., via environmental and biotic filtering) processes can produce diversity patterns related to changes in elevation. However, existing studies have not generally examined these processes within a compressive framework. Stream macroinvertebrates are an important and diverse component of freshwater environments in high-mountain systems. By considering metacommunity-structuring processes using Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities (HMSC), we investigated changes in taxon richness of stream macroinvertebrates along elevational gradients in streams of the Cangshan mountain range in Southwest China. We found that increasing taxon richness along the elevation gradient until the optimum was reached could be modeled using the integrated actions of full structuring processes within the metacommunity modeling. Consistent increases in taxon-richness along the elevation gradient were able to be modeled considering environmental filtering alone. In addition, the importance of structuring processes on shaping communities decreased along spatial hierarchical-scales (from local habitat to mountain-aspect levels). These results suggest that stochastic and biotic-filtering processes can confound environmental filtering in shaping macroinvertebrate communities in high-mountain streams. A comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying elevational biodiversity patterns of riverine communities can be improved through quantitative frameworks (e.g., HMSC) linking metacommunity theory to the real-world systems.

Keywords: Aquatic insects; Biotic filtering; Joint species-distribution modeling; Landscape connectivity; Macroinvertebrates; Species richness.

MeSH terms

Biodiversity*
China
Ecosystem*