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65 results for “tropical elevation gradient”
Data from: Soil microbial biomass increases along elevational gradients in the tropics and sub-tropics but not elsewhere
Abstract Aim: Our aim is to use elevational gradients to quantify the relationship between temperature and ecosystem functioning. Ecosystem functions such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and carbon storage are linked with the amount of microbial biomass in the soil. Previous studies have shown variable relationships between elevation and soil microbial biomass (SMB). Understanding the biological mechanisms linking SMB with elevational gradients will shed light on the environmental impacts of global warming. Location: Global. Time period: 2002-2018. Major taxa studied: Soil microbes. Method: We performed a global meta-analysis of the relationships between SMB and elevation. Data were collected from 59 studies of 73 elevational transects from around the world. Results: We found no consistent global relationship between SMB and elevation. SMB increased significantly with elevation in the tropics and sub-tropics, but not in other climate zones. However, we found consistent positive relationships between SMB, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen concentrations. Main conclusions: Our results suggest that global warming will impact tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems more severely than colder regions. Tropical ecosystems, already at risk from species extinctions, will likely experience declines in SMB as the climate warms, resulting in losses of fundamental ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling and carbon storage.
Data from: Changes in seed predation along a 2300-m elevational gradient on a tropical mountain in Myanmar: a standardized test with 32 non-native plant species
<p>It has been hypothesized that biotic interactions are stronger towards lower latitudes and elevations. However, results vary among interaction systems and experimental protocols. Our goal was to examine the validity of this prediction by using a standardized method to investigate seed–animal interaction. We assessed removal by animals for 40960 seeds belonging to 32 non-native tree species along an elevation gradient from 600 m to 2910 m on Mount Victoria (Nat Ma Taung), western Myanmar. We analyzed the elevational trends of seed removal at both individual seed level (probability of depot encounter, proportion of seeds removed after encounter and total proportion of seeds removed) and community level (Shannon diversity and species evenness indices). The dry and wet seasons had opposite relationships between seed removal and elevation,<br> i.e. hump-shaped in the dry season and U-shaped in the wet season. Individual plant species displayed almost all possible patterns: U-shaped and hump-shaped, monotonic decrease and increase, and elevation-independent patterns. As a consequence of the hump-shaped seed removal pattern with elevation in the dry season, the diversity and evenness of surviving seeds showed U-shaped patterns. Our study shows that elevational trends in seed–animal interactions do not follow a constant rule, but differ between seasons and among species, suggesting that a one-off survey with few species might give misleading information on overall macroecological patterns. Future studies of trends in biotic interactions along gradients should bear this in mind.</p>
Data from: Canopy soil greenhouse gas dynamics in response to indirect fertilization across an elevation gradient of tropical montane forests
Canopy soils can significantly contribute to aboveground labile biomass, especially in tropical montane forests. Whether they also contribute to the exchange of greenhouse gases is unknown. To examine the importance of canopy soils to tropical forest-soil greenhouse gas exchange, we quantified gas fluxes from canopy soil cores along an elevation gradient with 4 yr of nutrient addition to the forest floor. Canopy soil contributed 5–12 percent of combined (canopy + forest floor) soil CO2 emissions but CH4 and N2O fluxes were low. At 2000 m, phosphorus decreased CO2 emissions (>40%) and nitrogen slightly increased CH4 uptake and N2O emissions. Our results show that canopy soils may contribute significantly to combined soil greenhouse gas fluxes in montane regions with high accumulations of canopy soil. We also show that changes in fluxes could occur with chronic nutrient deposition.
Data from: Patterns of taxonomic and functional diversity of termites along a tropical elevational gradient
Patterns of termite richness along elevation gradients may be related to different responses by termite functional groups to changes in environmental conditions. We investigated the distribution of termite species richness along an elevational gradient of cerrado and rupestrian grasslands in the Espinhaço Mountain Range, in Brazil. Fifty termite species were recorded, with the family Termitidae being dominant; 16 species are endemic to open areas of cerrado and 1 species, Cortaritermes rizzinii, is endemic and restricted to mountaintop grassland habitats. Termite richness declined with increasing elevation, with the main factors associated with the reduction being climactic (air temperature, air and soil humidity, and radiation) and vegetation variables. Different termite communities were found along the elevational gradient, which were also strongly influenced by changes in climate and vegetation. On the other hand, the same functional groups were present at the different elevations, although represented by different species.
Data from: Traits that allow bats of tropical lowland origin to conquer mountains: bat assemblages along elevational gradients in the South American Atlantic Forest
Aim: This study aims to contribute to the identification of ecological determinants of tropical moist forest montane biodiversity, analyzing changes in the structure of bat assemblages along an elevational gradient and testing the role of species traits shaping those assemblages. Location: Mountain ranges in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Methods: We compiled a dataset with the composition of phyllostomid bat assemblages at 32 forested sites, ranging from 60m to 1960m a.s.l. We quantified how abundance and diversity changed along this elevational gradient, and assessed the capacity of each species to be present and abundant at each elevation, identifying traits that may influence that capacity. Results: Abundance and species diversity declined markedly with increasing elevation. Tolerance to low temperatures, low habitat specialization, and cave roosting facilitated success at higher elevations. Owing to trait filtering, and to changes in resource availability with elevation, assemblages were progressively dominated by a smaller number of mostly generalist species as elevation increased. Higher elevations harbor only a subset of the species that are present in the lowland forest, with no mountain specialized species. Main conclusions: High mountains harbor phyllostomid assemblages that are impoverished subsets of those at lower elevations. Phyllostomids have a tropical origin and may thus have a low potential to adapt to montane forest environments, which possibly explains the observed climatic trait filtering. Habitat filtering is also important, keeping forest specialists mostly at lowest elevations. Protected areas in the Atlantic Forest are mostly limited to mountains. While these areas are clearly important to protect biodiversity, including phyllostomid assemblages, it is now critical to protect and restore the few remnants of lower elevation Atlantic Forest where higher productivity and resource levels, increased complexity of vertical structure, and fewer climatic constraints favor the success of a wider range of phyllostomid bat species of tropical origin.
Data from: Trait patterns of epiphytes compared to other plant life forms along a tropical elevation gradient
Compared to other plant life forms, epiphytes remain understudied. Understanding the responses of epiphytes to changing environmental conditions is necessary to predict changes in ecosystem functioning especially in subtropical and tropical regions. We investigated the functional traits of epiphytes along a large elevation gradient on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We measured traits of co-occurring trees and terrestrial non-tree life forms, and compared changes in community-weighted means of traits (CWM) and trait spread, the range of observed trait values. We chose traits linked to growth and persistence: leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, stem specific density, plant height, leaf carbon, leaf nitrogen, and leaf phosphorus. For most traits, differences in community-weighted means between life forms exceeded differences within life forms along the elevation gradient. Many CWM showed linear changes with elevation, but no response and unimodal patterns were also frequent. This was best explained by temperature, or a combination of temperature with precipitation or humidity, indicating effects of these factors on the distribution of epiphytic and non-epiphytic species. Trait spread did not change with elevation in nearly half of the traits, but hump-shaped patterns were also common, probably a result of weaker environmental filtering in the gradient center. The magnitude of trait spread, i.e. the variability between species of the same life form within communities, was highest for terrestrial non-trees. Excluding ferns from the analyses lead to marked differences in trait patterns for epiphytes, as ferns made up 59 % of the epiphytic species, while playing a minor role in the other groups. The observed differences can be explained by a dichotomy in epiphytic life strategies, with tough-leaved xero-tolerant species on one side and succulent soft-leaved species on the other. However, the influence of phylogeny was lower than expected from the taxonomic composition of the three life form groups. Our results emphasize that environmental constraints act upon functional traits of epiphytes, trees and terrestrial non-trees. The differences in trait expressions, arguably adaptations of the different life forms, need to be taken into account in conservation contexts as well as when modeling the effects of global change on ecosystems.
Figure 8 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 8. Vegetation predictors of the pimpline community across traps (n = 30). (a) Epiphyte density against log richness; (b) herb ground cover against the log of inverse Simpson's Index of Diversity;
Figure 7 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 7. Pimplinae community composition, as measured by the first axis of a Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling analysis (NMDS1, see Figure 6) across sampling sites (n = 15), against the first Principal Component (PC1) of the habitat variables at those sites (see Table 4). The line is the linear regression (±95% CI in gray). The figure demonstrates that pimpline community composition is very strongly associated with differences in habitat characteristics across sites.
Figure 6 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 6. An ordination using Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) of the pimpline community at the site level. Black numbers and points indicate the 15 sampling sites, going from the bottom of the mountain (1) to the top (15). Species are in gray, small lettering.
Figure 4 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 4. Pimplinae wasp community metrics against elevation (altitude) across 30 traps. (a) Abundance; (b) Log10 Species Richness; (c) Log10 Simpson's Index (1/D); and (d) Shannon Index. Lines are the equations of the polynomial linear model in Table 2 with the lowest AICc, ±95%CI; (a,b): cubic models (c,d): quadratic models.
Figure 2 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 2. Some of the Pimplinae wasp species sampled (all are females). (a) Dolichomitus megalourus (scale bar 4 mm), 10 individuals sampled; (b) Neotheronia charli (scale bar 1 mm), 24 individuals sampled; (c) Neotheronia sp. 6 (scale bar 1 mm), 26 individuals sampled; (d) Pimpla caerulea (scale bar 1 mm), 447 individuals sampled; (e) Polysphincta organensis (scale bar 2 mm), 19 individuals sampled; and (f) Polysphincta teresa (scale bar 2 mm), 8 individuals sampled.
Figure 3 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 3. Species richness of pimplines against sampling intensity. (a) Estimates of total species richness against number of traps sampled (filled circles: observed data; open circles: bootstrap; diamonds: first-order jackknife; triangles: Chao; squares: second-order jackknife); (b) site-level rarefaction (±SD); (c) trap-level rarefaction (±SD); (d) mean individual-level rarefaction for the whole data (top line) and altitudinally-zoned subsets (from top to bottom, 332–549 m, 703–887 m, 952–1071 m, 110–150 m, and 1236–1482 m, which are superimposed, 1649–1812 m and 1935–2169 m), points are literature-based data covering the same span of sampling intensities for comparison from [45]. Note the log scale on the y-axis.
Figure 1 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 1. (a) Location of the Serra dos Órgãos National Park (gray shaded area), a protected tropical Atlantic Rain Forest in the State of Rio de Janeiro, southeast Brazil. (b) Map of the 15 study sites and their respective altitudes along the elevational gradient in the Park, where four different phytophysiognomies are observed: (c) lower montane forest (up to 500 m), which presents a 20 m high canopy but normally no other well-defined forest layers; (d) montane forest (500 m to 1500 m), with its clear stratification into arboreal, shrub, and herb layers, and large emergent trees reaching 40 m covered with abundant lianas and epiphytes; (e) high montane forest (1500 m to 2000 m) with smaller trees of up to 10 m covered with mosses and epiphytes, and great diversity of shrubs; and (f) high-altitude grassland, also known as campos de altitude (above 2000 m), dominated by herbal vegetation growing around rocks and scattered shrubs.
Figure 5. Pimplinae wasp community metrics against mean monthly temperature across 15 in Variation in a Darwin Wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Community along an Elevation Gradient in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot: Implications for Ecology and Conservation
Figure 5. Pimplinae wasp community metrics against mean monthly temperature across 15 sites. (a) Abundance; (b) Log10 Species Richness; (c) Log10 Simpson's Index (1/D); and (d) Shannon Index. Lines are the equations of the model in Table 3 ± 95%CI. (a) cubic model; (b,d) quadratic models; and (c): linear model.
Data from: Ecological drivers of avian community assembly along a tropical elevation gradient
<p>Community assembly theory hypothesizes that two main niche-based processes act to shape composition and organization of biological assemblages: abiotic filtering and biological interactions. Here, we conducted repeated surveys of bird abundance along an undisturbed elevational gradient in the tropical Andes to investigate (1) signals of deterministic processes driving community assembly and (2) potential mechanisms by which these forces operate (temperature, habitat complexity, fruit and insect availability), while correcting for imperfect detection and modeling species abundances with N-mixture models. We observed strong signals of abiotic filtering driving functionally and phylogenetically clustered assemblages towards higher elevations, and a weaker signal of limiting similarity resulting in few overdispersed assemblages at lower elevations. Whereas the decay in species richness with increasing elevation was explained by temperature, trait and phylogenetic dispersion were explained by both temperature and vegetation structure, implying that an interplay of abiotic and biotic mechanisms determines abundance-based community structure in our montane assemblages. Interestingly, trait and phylogenetic dispersion consistently decreased until ~3000 m but increased above this elevation, highlighting a potential role of competition in resource-scarce habitats. Combined, our findings suggest abiotic filters are still the main process shaping montane biotas across elevations, whereas resource availability might act locally upon assemblages further modifying them. Our study challenges recent studies in tropical mountains that suggest that biotic filters are a stronger force than abiotic filters in shaping tropical montane assemblages, and exemplifies how accounting for imperfect detection might overcome potential biases in detecting environmental filtering signals in community assembly studies.</p>
Patterns and drivers of leaf-litter ant diversity along a tropical elevational gradient in Mexico
<p><b>Aim: </b>Given their high environmental variation over relatively short distances, mountains represent ideal systems for evaluating potential factors shaping diversity gradients. Despite a long-standing interest in ecological gradients, ant diversity patterns and their related mechanisms occurring on mountains are still not well understood. Here, we (i) describe species diversity patterns (α and β) of leaf-litter ants along the eastern slope of Cofre de Perote in Veracruz, Mexico, and (ii) evaluate climatic and spatial factors in determining these patterns.</p> <p><b>Location: </b>Veracruz, Mexico</p> <p><b>Taxon: </b>Leaf-litter ants</p> <p><b>Methods: </b>We sampled 320 m<sup>2</sup> of leaf litter spread across 8 equally-spaced sites from sea level to 3500 m of elevation. We used regression models to predict α-diversity patterns with climatic (temperature and precipitation) and spatial (geometric constraints) variables. We also assessed, through multiple regression based on distance matrices (MRM), the relative importance of habitat filtering and dispersal limitations for shaping total dissimilarity (βsor), turnover (βsim) or nestedness (βnes).</p> <p><b>Results: </b>A hump-shaped pattern was observed in the α- diversity with a peak at 600-1000 meters above sea level. This pattern is best explained by the temperature gradient with around 80% of variance explanation. β-diversity showed a non-linear pattern along the elevational gradient with total dissimilarity and turnover components better explained by habitat filtering (i.e., temperature distances).</p> <p><b>Main conclusions:</b> The importance of temperature on both α- and β-diversity patterns reinforces its widespread importance in shaping litter ant diversity patterns across elevational gradients. The hump-shaped pattern in species richness is probably the result of harsh abiotic conditions at the base and the top of the mountain combined with biotic attrition in lowland sites. Niche specialization of ant species in their optimal thermal zones may explain total dissimilarity and ant species replacement along the studied gradient. Taken all together, these results suggest a high relevance of temperature-driven mechanisms in the origin and maintenance of the biodiversity of ectothermic taxa.</p>
Independent variation of avian sensitivity to climate change and trait-based adaptive capacity along a tropical elevational gradient
<p>Aim: How species respond to climate change is influenced by their sensitivity to climatic conditions (i.e., their climatic niche) and aspects of their adaptive capacity (e.g., their dispersal ability, ecological niche). To date, it is largely unknown whether and how species' sensitivity to climate change and their adaptive capacity covary. However, understanding this relationship is important to predict the potential consequences of a changing climate for species assemblages. Here, we test how species' sensitivity to climate change and trait-based measures of their ecological adaptive capacity (i) vary along a broad elevational gradient and (ii) covary across a large number of bird species.</p> <p>Location: A Neotropical elevational gradient (300 - 3600 m.a.s.l.) in the Manú biosphere reserve, south‐east Peru.</p> <p>Methods: We focus on 215 frugivorous bird species along a Neotropical elevational gradient. We approximate species' sensitivity to climate change by their climatic niche breadth, based on species occurrences across South America and bioclimatic variables. In addition, we use a trait-based approach to estimate the dispersal ability of species (approximated by their wing pointedness), their dietary niche breadth (approximated by bill width), and their habitat niche breadth (the number of used habitat classes).</p> <p>Results: We found that (i) species' climatic niche breadth increased with elevation, while their trait-based dispersal ability and dietary niche breadth decreased with elevation, and (ii) sensitivity to climate change and trait-based adaptive capacity were not related across species.</p> <p>Main conclusions: These results suggest different mechanisms of how species in lowland and highland assemblages might respond to climate change. The independent variation of species' sensitivity to climate change and their trait-based adaptive capacity suggests that accounting for both dimensions will improve assessments of species' susceptibility to climate change and potential impacts of climate change on diverse species assemblages.</p>
Data from: The species richness pattern of vascular plants along a tropical elevational gradient and the test of elevational Rapoport's rule depend on different life‐forms and phytogeographic affinities
The research about species richness pattern and elevational Rapoport's rule (ERR) have been carried out mostly in the temperate regions in the recent years and scarcely in the tropical mountains; meanwhile, it is unclear whether the ERR is consistent among different life‐forms and phytogeographic affinities. Here, we compiled a database of plant species of Mount Kenya, a tropical mountain of East Africa, and divided these species into twelve groups depending on the life‐form and phytogeographic affinity of each species. We inspected the species richness pattern of each group along the elevation gradient and also tested ERR of each group using Stevens' method. Our results showed that species richness of the total species showed a positively skewed (hump‐shaped) pattern along the elevation gradient and different life‐forms and phytogeographic affinities showed similar hump‐shaped patterns as the total species. The average elevation range size of the total species and herbaceous species showed increasing patterns along the elevation gradient, while lycophytes and ferns, and woody species showed an obvious downward trend after peaking in the high elevation regions. We concluded that the widely distributed herbaceous species which also have broad elevation range sizes are more applicable to ERR, while the narrowly distributed woody species with small elevation range sizes occurring in the higher elevations could reverse ERR. Therefore, we concluded that the ERR is not consistent among different organisms in the same region.
Data from: Temperature and vegetation complexity structure mixed-species flocks along a gradient of elevation in the tropical Andes
<p>Mixed-species flocks constitute community modules that can help test mechanisms driving changes to community composition across environmental gradients. Here, we examined elevational patterns of flock diversity (species richness, taxonomic diversity, species and guild composition) and asked if these patterns were reflections of the full bird community at a given elevation (open-membership hypothesis), or if they were instead structured by environmental variables. We surveyed both the overall avian community and mixed-species flocks across an undisturbed elevational gradient (~1350 – 3550 m) in the Bolivian Andes. We then tested for the role of temperature (a surrogate for abiotic stress), resource diversity (arthropods, fruits) and foraging niche diversity (vegetation vertical complexity) in structuring these patterns. Patterns for the overall and flocking communities were similar, supporting our open-membership hypothesis that Andean flocks represent dynamic, unstructured aggregations. Membership openness and the resulting flock composition, however, also varied with elevation in response to temperature and vegetation complexity. We found a mid-elevation peak in flock species richness, size, and Shannon's diversity at ~2300 m. The transition of flocking behavior towards a more open-membership system at this elevation may explain a similar peak in the proportion of insectivores joining flocks. At high elevations, increasing abiotic stress and decreasing fruit diversity led more generalist, gregarious tanagers (Thraupidae) to join flocks, resulting in larger yet more even flocks alongside a loss of vegetation structure. At lower elevations, flock species richness increased with greater vegetation complexity, but a greater diversity of foraging niches resulted in flocks that were more segregated into separate canopy and understory sub-types. This segregation likely results from increased costs of interspecific competition and activity matching (i.e., constraints on movement and foraging rate) for insectivores. Mid-elevation flocks (~2300 m) seemed, therefore, to benefit from both the open-membership composition of high-elevation flocks and the high vegetation complexity of mid- and low-elevation forests.</p>
FIG. 4 in Species richness, functional diversity and assemblage structure of insectivorous bats along an elevational gradient in tropical West Africa
FIG. 4. Mean pairwise distances (MPD) of multivariate traits (A and B), forearm length (C and D), greatest skull length (E and F), narrowest breadth of skull (G and H), ear length (I and J) and tail length (K and L) of insectivorous bat assemblages along the Mount Nimba elevational gradient. Observed MPD for each elevation is represented by the blue dots. A blue line of best fit is shown for significant relationships between observed MPD and elevation. The red dots indicate the expected MPD as calculated by 999 randomized community shuffles for figures on the left, and trait shuffles for figures on the right. A red line of best fit is shown for significant relationships between expected MPD and elevation. Instances where observed MPD differs significantly from the expected MPD are indicated by black rings
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