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F I G U R E 6 in GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

F I G U R E 6 (a) Total number of trait records per native angiosperm species per region and (b–e) trait coverage per region (number of native angiosperm species with trait information/number of all native angiosperm species) for exemplary traits with characteristic geographic patterns in coverage. Polygons are plotted sequentially in order of decreasing area to show smaller regions on top of larger regions, in the case where they overlap. Regions <25,000 km2 are plotted as points [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 5 in GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

F I G U R E 5 Taxonomic coverage of distribution data in the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits 1.0 at the family level. Tip color and inner ring color indicate the proportion of species with distribution information relative to all species of a given family, the grey outer ring delimits major clades of vascular plants. The height of bars in the outer ring is proportional to log10 total family species richness. Phylogenetic signal in taxonomic coverage was assessed as Abouheif's Cmean, a measure of phylogenetic autocorrelation based on the sum of the successive squared differences between values of neighbouring tips in the phylogeny (Abouheif, 1999) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 2 in GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

F I G U R E 2 Simplified structure of the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits database. Metadata on literature references, species lists and geographic regions builds the backbone of the database (top row). A reference can include several species lists (e.g. for different sub-regions) and a geographic region can be covered by several lists and references. Species lists vary in taxonomic and floristic scope (e.g. all native and naturalized angiosperms) and in the information content (floristic status, functional traits). Primary occurrence information, species names and functional trait data from the literature resources build the main block of original data (yellow). Automated workflows link those to taxonomically standardized working names, to a higher taxonomy and phylogeny of vascular plants and produce derived resources for analyses (blue). Grey bars indicate links among tables in a simplified way (most tables shown here represent several tables in the database) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 3 in GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

F I G U R E 3 Trait processing in the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits (GIFT). Original trait records entering GIFT are subjected to three processing steps: (i) Trait values are standardized with respect to language, terminology and measurement unit. (ii) Additional trait values are derived hierarchically for traits that are logically nested (colored rows under "derived traits", see also Figure S1), and taxonomically for species that belong to taxonomic groups that are uniform with respect to a particular trait. (iii) Derived trait values are aggregated at the species level based on the consensus among resources (categorical traits) or summary statistics are computed based on the original values (numerical traits) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 4 in GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

F I G U R E 4 Spatial coverage of checklist data stored in the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits 1.0. (a) Regions with checklist data for native vascular plants. Darker green shade indicates overlapping regions. (b–d) Checklist coverage and species richness of major taxonomic groups for regions with theoretically complete inventories. Polygons are plotted sequentially in order of decreasing area to show smaller regions on top of larger regions, in the case where they overlap. Regions <25,000 km2 are plotted as points [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 1 in GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

F I G U R E 1 Conceptual framework of the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits database (GIFT). The core information in GIFT are species occurrences in geographic regions (islands, political units, protected areas, biogeographical regions) based on Floras and checklist. At the level of the geographical regions, this information is linked to geographic, bioclimatic and socioeconomic properties. At the level of the species, functional traits, taxonomic placement and phylogenetic relationships are linked. This integration of species distribution data in the form of full regional inventories and regional and species characteristics allows for a wide variety of macroecological and biogeographical analyses of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity as well as for the refinement and validation of other plant distribution and trait datasets [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

opencc-zeroSep 2021View details →

The macroecology of fish migration

Aim: We still lack a consensus on the main variables driving changes in migratory strategies. Different hypotheses have been proposed: productivity, energy, environmental heterogeneity, and genetic predisposition. This work takes an integrative view and analyzes migrations from a macroecological perspective estimating the extent to which different environmental variables and historic factors influence migratory life histories. Location: Global Time period: Current Major taxa studied: Actinopterygian fishes Methods: Using public domain museum records, global repositories, and global measures of temperature, productivity, precipitation and heterogeneity, we spatially analyzed the distribution of anadromous, catadromous, amphidromous, potamodromous and oceanodromous migratory fish using 1676 species and compared it to 1616 non-migratory fishes. After analyzing the individual roles of productivity and temperature in shaping biodiversity, we conducted path analyses including several environmental variables and principal coordinates of phylogenetic structure (PCPS). Results: The different migratory strategies are not evenly distributed around the globe and phylogeny is a relevant variable in shaping current patterns. Productivity is positively related to species richness, except for anadromy and potamodromy, where we observed a unimodal curve. Temperature significantly drives migratory species richness (except for anadromy). The role of environmental heterogeneity, measured as temperature seasonality and annual range is strongest for anadromous species, which helps explain their skewed distribution towards higher latitudes and why the kinetic-energy hypothesis fails in explaining their richness patterns. Main conclusions: Overall, migratory fish richness can be explained by the interaction of multiple variables, such as productivity, temperature, environmental heterogeneity, and the role of phylogeny, but these variables interact differentially in each strategy, diverging mostly for the anomalous anadromous fishes. Integrating these results into a global framework to better understand the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of migration will help with predicting responses to anthropogenic climate change

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Contextualizing macroecological laws: A big data analysis on electrofishing and allometric scalings in Ohio, USA

We investigated the influence of different electrofishing methods on allometric scaling features of fish assemblages in lotic environments. The ultimate aim was to elucidate to which extent the structure of fish assemblages is predictable by the three-quarter power law theory. Water bodies across the state of Ohio, USA, provided a suitable data set to analyze the size–biomass spectra of 2051 fish assemblages. For the first time, 41,070 allometric field observations were screened according to sampling methods (i.e., longline, tote barge, boat) adopted for sampling collection. Allometric patterns varied considerably in relation with the sampling method, in turn imposed by the local hydrology and morphology of the investigated water courses, as shown by the lowering of scalings from boatable to wadeable systems. There are several lines of evidence indicating that the chosen type of electrofishing acts as a pitfall for size spectra. Using individually weighted body-mass values as independent predictor of spectra we show that the specific sampling methodology required by the physical characteristics of different lotic habitats influence the allometric outcomes, a novel result that makes universality of community power laws not as straightforward as supposed until now.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Predicting spatial patterns of plant species richness: a comparison of direct macroecological and species stacking modelling approaches

PLEASE NOTE, THESE DATA ARE ALSO REFERRED TO IN TWO OTHER PUBLICATIONS. PLEASE SEE http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01766.x AND http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12222 FOR MORE INFORMATION. Aim: This study compares the direct, macroecological approach (MEM) for modelling species richness (SR) with the more recent approach of stacking predictions from individual species distributions (S-SDM). We implemented both approaches on the same dataset and discuss their respective theoretical assumptions, strengths and drawbacks. We also tested how both approaches performed in reproducing observed patterns of SR along an elevational gradient. Location: Two study areas in the Alps of Switzerland. Methods: We implemented MEM by relating the species counts to environmental predictors with statistical models, assuming a Poisson distribution. S-SDM was implemented by modelling each species distribution individually and then stacking the obtained prediction maps in three different ways – summing binary predictions, summing random draws of binomial trials and summing predicted probabilities – to obtain a final species count. Results: The direct MEM approach yields nearly unbiased predictions centred around the observed mean values, but with a lower correlation between predictions and observations, than that achieved by the S-SDM approaches. This method also cannot provide any information on species identity and, thus, community composition. It does, however, accurately reproduce the hump-shaped pattern of SR observed along the elevational gradient. The S-SDM approach summing binary maps can predict individual species and thus communities, but tends to overpredict SR. The two other S-SDM approaches – the summed binomial trials based on predicted probabilities and summed predicted probabilities – do not overpredict richness, but they predict many competing end points of assembly or they lose the individual species predictions, respectively. Furthermore, all S-SDM approaches fail to appropriately reproduce the observed hump-shaped patterns of SR along the elevational gradient. Main conclusions: Macroecological approach and S-SDM have complementary strengths. We suggest that both could be used in combination to obtain better SR predictions by following the suggestion of constraining S-SDM by MEM predictions.

opencc-zeroJun 2019View details →

Data from: North Atlantic Gateway: test bed of deep-sea macroecological patterns

Aim: The deep waters around Iceland, known as the North Atlantic Gateway, constitute an ideal location to investigate deep-sea ecological hypotheses. Using ostracods, we constructed a comprehensive deep-sea macroecological dataset of the North Atlantic Gateway region and investigated the controlling factors of large-scale, deep-sea species diversity patterns. Location: Sub-polar North Atlantic Ocean Time period: Modern Major taxa studied: Ostracoda (Crustacea) Methods: We investigated deep-sea biodiversity patterns and applied ecological modeling (multiple regression and model averaging) to test whether these patterns are governed by environmental factors such as temperature, surface primary productivity, and seasonality. Beta diversity analyses were applied to evaluate the effect of a geographical barrier (Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge) on deep-sea benthic faunal distributions. Results: We constructed a deep-sea macroecological dataset with 32 stations, 5676 specimens, and 122 species. We confirmed a linear latitudinal diversity gradient with higher diversity in the North Atlantic proper than in the Nordic Seas. We report a unimodal depth diversity gradient south of the ridge, but a linear diversity-decline with depth north of the ridge. The turnover component of beta diversity increased toward the ridge. Main conclusions: We found both temperature and surface primary production are important for deep-sea biodiversity. For the first time, we report a significant diversity-temperature relationship in both macroecological (spatial; this study) and existing paleoecological (time-series) data for the same taxa. In addition to temperature and surface primary production, bathymetric features such as a shallow ridge acting as a barrier, are an important factor for deep-sea biodiversity distribution. The low diversity of the Nordic Seas is likely due to a combination of low temperatures and bathymetric barriers. These results substantially expand our understanding of the well-known yet poorly understood Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge faunal transition with possible insight to its cause.

opencc-zeroJun 2021View details →

Data from: Testing macroecological abundance patterns: the relationship between local abundance and range size, range position and climatic suitability among European vascular plants

Aim: A fundamental question in macroecology centres around understanding the relationship between species' local abundance and their distribution in geographic and climatic space (i.e. the multi-dimensional climatic space or climatic niche). Here, we tested three macroecological hypotheses that link local abundance to the following range properties: (1) the abundance-range size relationship, (2) the abundance-range centre relationship, and (3) the abundance-suitability relationship. Location: Europe Taxon: Vascular plants Methods: Distribution range maps were extracted from the Chorological Database to derive information on the range and niche sizes of 517 European vascular plant species. To estimate local abundance, we assessed samples from 744,513 vegetation plots in the European Vegetation Archive, where local species' abundance is available as plant cover per plot. We then calculated the 'centrality', i.e. the distance between the location of the abundance observation and each species' range centre in geographic and climatic space. The climatic suitability of plot locations was estimated using coarse-grain species distribution models (SDMs). The relationships between centrality or climatic suitability with abundance were tested using linear models and quantile regression. We summarized the overall trend across species' regression slopes from linear models and quantile regression using a meta-analytical approach. Results: We did not detect any positive relationships between a species' mean local abundance and the size of its geographic range or climatic niche. Contrasting yet significant correlations were detected between abundance and centrality or climatic suitability among species. Main conclusions: Our results do not provide unequivocal support for any of the relationships tested, demonstrating that determining properties of species' distributions at large grains and extents might be of limited use for predicting local abundance, including current SDM approaches. We conclude that environmental factors influencing individual performance and local abundance are likely to differ from those factors driving plant species' distribution at coarse resolution and broad geographic extents.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Do cryptic species matter in macroecology? Sequencing European groundwater crustaceans yields smaller ranges but does not challenge biodiversity determinants

Ecologists increasingly rely on molecular delimitation methods (MMs) to identify species boundaries, thereby potentially increasing the number of putative species because of the presence of morphologically cryptic species. It has been argued that cryptic species could challenge our understanding of what determine large-scale biodiversity patterns which have traditionally been documented from morphology alone. Here, we used morphology and three MMs to derive four different sets of putative species among the European groundwater crustaceans. Then, we used regression models to compare the relative importance of spatial heterogeneity, productivity and historical climates, in shaping species richness and range size patterns across sets of putative species. We tested three predictions. First, MMs would yield many more putative species than morphology because groundwater is a constraining environment allowing little morphological changes. Second, for species richness, MMs would increase the importance of spatial heterogeneity because cryptic species are more likely along physical barriers separating ecologically similar regions than along resource gradients promoting ecologically-based divergent selection. Third, for range size, MMs would increase the importance of historical climates because of reduced and asymmetrical fragmentation of large morphological species ranges at northern latitudes. MMs yielded twice more putative species than morphology and decreased by 10-fold the average species range size. Yet, MMs strengthened the mid-latitude ridge of high species richness and the Rapoport effect of increasing range size at higher latitudes. Species richness predictors did not vary between morphology and MMs but the latter increased the proportion of variance in range size explained by historical climates. These findings demonstrate that our knowledge of groundwater biodiversity determinants is robust to overlooked cryptic species because the latter are homogeneously distributed along environmental gradients. Yet, our findings call for incorporating multiple species delimitation methods into the analysis of large-scale biodiversity patterns across a range of taxa and ecosystems.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Macroecological drivers of zooplankton communities across the mountains of western North America

Disentangling the environmental and spatial drivers of biological communities across large scales increasingly challenges modern ecology in a rapidly changing world. Here, we investigate the hierarchical and trait-based organization of regional and local factors of zooplankton communities at a macroscale of 1,240 mountain lakes and ponds spanning western North America (California, USA, to Yukon Territory, Canada). Variation partitioning was used to test the hypothesized importance of climate, connectivity, catchment features, and exotic sportfish to zooplankton beta-diversity in the context of key functional traits (body size and reproductive dispersal potential) given the pronounced environmental heterogeneity (e.g. thermal gradients), topographic barriers, and legacy of stocked fish in mountainous regions. Dispersal limitation was inferred from multispecies patch connectivity estimates based on nearest and average distances to occupied patches. Environmental heterogeneity best explained community composition as catchment/lake features (morphometry, land cover, and lithology) collectively captured greater variation than did climate (temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation), local stocking, or connectivity; however, single climatic variables captured the most variation individually. Macrospatial variation by larger obligate sexual species was better explained than that by smaller cyclically parthenogenetic asexual species. Our results provide several novel insights into the macroecology of zooplankton of the North American Cordillera, demonstrating their stronger associations to climatically driven aquatic-terrestrial habitat coupling than dynamics arising from introduced salmonids, human land-use, or species dispersal. These findings highlight the clear and important role of these communities as bioindicators of the limnological impacts of accelerating rates of climate change, as their responses appear relatively not confounded by local human perturbations or dispersal limitation.

opencc-zeroDec 2010View details →

Data from: Testing the species–genetic diversity correlation in the Aegean archipelago: towards a haplotype-based macroecology?

A positive correlation between species and genetic diversity (SGDC) has been proposed, consistent with neutral predictions in macroecology. We assessed the SGDC in tenebrionid beetle communities of the Aegean archipelago on fifteen islands of different sizes, distances to mainland, and ages of isolation. Alpha- and beta-diversity of species and haplotypes were assessed using sequences of >1000 individuals (mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I and nuclear Muscular Protein 20) to test the SGDC. We show that: (i) there is a strong species-area and haplotype-area relationship; (ii) species richness in island communities is correlated with intraspecific genetic diversity in the constituent species except when island size or distance to mainland are factored out in partial correlations; (iii) community similarity declines exponentially at an increasing rate when calculated based on species, nuclear and mtDNA haplotypes; and (iv) distance decay of community similarity is slower in dispersive sand-dwelling lineages compared to less dispersive lineages that are not sand-obligate. Taken together, these correlated patterns at the species and haplotype level are consistent with individual-based stochastic dispersal proposed by neutral theories of biodiversity. The results also demonstrate the utility of haplotype data for exploring macroecological patterns in poorly known biota and predicting large-scale biodiversity patterns based on genetic inventories of local samples.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Macroecological patterns of sexual size dimorphism in turtles of the world

Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is a well-documented phenomenon in both plants and animals; however, the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that drive and maintain SSD patterns across geographic space at regional and global scales are understudied, especially for reptiles. Our goal was to examine geographic variation of turtle SSD and to explore ecological and environmental correlates using phylogenetic comparative methods. We use published body size data on 135 species from nine turtle families to examine how geographic patterns and the evolution of SSD are influenced by habitat specialization, climate (annual mean temperature and annual precipitation) and climate variability, latitude, or a combination of these predictor variables. We also found that geographic variation, magnitude, and direction of turtle SSD are best explained by habitat association, annual temperature variance, and annual precipitation. Use of semi-aquatic and terrestrial habitats was associated with male-biased SSD, whereas use of aquatic habitat was associated with female-biased SSD. Our results also suggest that greater temperature variability is associated with female-biased SSD. In contrast, wetter climates are associated with male-biased SSD compared with arid climates that are associated with female-biased SSD. We also show support for a global latitudinal trend in SSD, with females being larger than males towards the poles, especially in the families Emydidae and Geoemydidae. Estimates of phylogenetic signal for both SSD and habitat type indicate that closely related species occupy similar habitats and exhibit similar direction and magnitude of SSD. These global patterns of SSD may arise from sex-specific reproductive behavior, fecundity, and sex-specific responses to environmental factors that differ among habitats and vary systematically across latitude. Thus, this study adds to our current understanding that while SSD can vary dramatically across and within turtle species under phylogenetic constraints, it may be driven, maintained, and exaggerated by habitat type, climate, and geographic location.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Establishing macroecological trait datasets: digitalization, extrapolation, and validation of diet preferences in terrestrial mammals worldwide

Ecological trait data are essential for understanding the broad-scale distribution of biodiversity and its response to global change. For animals, diet represents a fundamental aspect of species' evolutionary adaptations, ecological and functional roles, and trophic interactions. However, the importance of diet for macroevolutionary and macroecological dynamics remains little explored, partly because of the lack of comprehensive trait datasets. We compiled and evaluated a comprehensive global dataset of diet preferences of mammals ("MammalDIET"). Diet information was digitized from two global and cladewide data sources and errors of data entry by multiple data recorders were assessed. We then developed a hierarchical extrapolation procedure to fill-in diet information for species with missing information. Missing data were extrapolated with information from other taxonomic levels (genus, other species within the same genus, or family) and this extrapolation was subsequently validated both internally (with a jack-knife approach applied to the compiled species-level diet data) and externally (using independent species-level diet information from a comprehensive continentwide data source). Finally, we grouped mammal species into trophic levels and dietary guilds, and their species richness as well as their proportion of total richness were mapped at a global scale for those diet categories with good validation results. The success rate of correctly digitizing data was 94%, indicating that the consistency in data entry among multiple recorders was high. Data sources provided species-level diet information for a total of 2033 species (38% of all 5364 terrestrial mammal species, based on the IUCN taxonomy). For the remaining 3331 species, diet information was mostly extrapolated from genus-level diet information (48% of all terrestrial mammal species), and only rarely from other species within the same genus (6%) or from family level (8%). Internal and external validation showed that: (1) extrapolations were most reliable for primary food items; (2) several diet categories ("Animal," "Mammal," "Invertebrate," "Plant," "Seed," "Fruit," and "Leaf") had high proportions of correctly predicted diet ranks; and (3) the potential of correctly extrapolating specific diet categories varied both within and among clades. Global maps of species richness and proportion showed congruence among trophic levels, but also substantial discrepancies between dietary guilds. MammalDIET provides a comprehensive, unique and freely available dataset on diet preferences for all terrestrial mammals worldwide. It enables broad-scale analyses for specific trophic levels and dietary guilds, and a first assessment of trait conservatism in mammalian diet preferences at a global scale. The digitalization, extrapolation and validation procedures could be transferable to other trait data and taxa.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: A macroecological approach to evolutionary rescue and adaptation to climate change

Despite the widespread use of Ecological Niche Models (ENMs) for predicting the responses of species to climate change, these models do not explicitly incorporate any population-level mechanism. On the other hand, mechanistic models adding population processes (e.g., biotic interactions, dispersal and adaptive potential to abiotic constraints) are much more complex and difficult to parameterize, especially if the goal is to predict range shifts for many species simultaneously. In particular, the adaptive potential (based on genetic adaptations, phenotypic plasticity and behavioral adjustments for physiological responses) of local populations has been the less studied mechanism affecting species' responses to climatic change so far. Here, we discuss and apply an alternative macroecological framework to evaluate the potential role of evolutionary rescue under climate change based on ENMs. We begin by reviewing eco-evolutionary models that evaluate the maximum sustainable evolutionary rate under a scenario of environmental change, showing how they can be used to understand the impact of temperature change on a Neotropical anuran species, the Schneider's toad Rhinella diptycha. Then we show how to evaluate spatial patterns of species' geographic range shift using such models, by estimating evolutionary rates at the species' trailing edge distribution estimated by ENMs and by recalculating the relative amount of total range loss under climate change. We show how different models can reduce the expected range loss predicted for the studied species by potential ecophysiological adaptations in some regions of the trailing edge predicted by ENMs. For general applications, we believe that parameters for large numbers of species and populations can be obtained from macroecological generalizations (e.g. allometric equations and ecogeographical rules), so our framework coupling ENMs with eco-evolutionary models can be applied to achieve a more accurate picture of potential impacts from climate changes and other threats to biodiversity.

opennotspecifiedDec 2010View details →

FIGURE 3 in Molecules meet macroecology—combining Species Distribution Models and phylogeographic studies

FIGURE 3. Potential distribution of Arthroleptis xenodactyloides under current climatic and two proposed Last Glacial Maximum palaeoclimatic scenarios (CCSM, MIROC) showing mean values obtained from 10 models computed with randomly selected 30 % of the 46 records (black dots) for model evaluation and the remaining 70 % for model training and corresponding standard deviations (SD).