Linking species functional traits of terrestrial vertebrates and environmental filters: a case study in temperate mountain systems
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2019-02
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Knowledge on the relationships between species functional traits and environmental filters
is key to understanding the mechanisms underlying the current patterns of biodiversity loss
from a multi-taxa perspective. The aim of this study was to identify the main environmental
factors driving the functional structure of a terrestrial vertebrate community (mammals,
breeding birds, reptiles and amphibians) in a temperate mountain system (the Cantabrian
Mountains; NW Spain). Based on the Spanish Inventory of Terrestrial Vertebrate Species,
we selected three functional traits (feeding guild, habitat use type and daily activity) and
defined, for each trait, a set of functional groups considering vertebrate species with common
functional characteristics. The community functional structure was evaluated by
means of two functional indexes indicative of functional redundancy (species richness within
each functional group) and functional diversity. Ordinary least squares regression and conditional
autoregressive models were applied to determine the response of community functional
structure to environmental filters (climate, topography, land cover, physiological state
of vegetation, landscape heterogeneity and human influence). The results revealed that
both functional redundancy and diversity of terrestrial vertebrates were non-randomly distributed
across space; rather, they were driven by environmental filters. Climate, topography
and human influence were the best predictors of community functional structure. The influence
of land cover, physiological state of vegetation and landscape heterogeneity varied
among functional groups. The results of this study are useful to identify the general assembly
rules of species functional traits and to illustrate the importance of environmental filters
in determining functional structure of terrestrial vertebrate communities in mountain
systems.
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GARCÍA-LLAMAS, Paula; RANGEL, Thiago Fernando; CALVO, Leonor; SUÁREZ-SEOANE, Susana. Linking species functional traits of terrestrial vertebrates and environmental filters: a case study in temperate mountain systems. PLoS One, San Francisco, v. 14, e0211760, Feb. 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211760. Disponível em: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0211760. Acesso em: 27 mar. 2023.