Segregation structure in Odonata assemblages follows the latitudinal gradient
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Segregation structure in Odonata assemblages follows the latitudinal gradient Francesco Cerini1 · Luca Stellati1 · Leonardo Vignoli1 Received: 1 August 2019 / Accepted: 10 June 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Latitude is known to deeply affect life with effects generalizable into ecological rules; the increasing species diversity toward tropics is the most paradigmatic. Several hypotheses tested patterns of biotic interactions’ intensity along latitude. Negative interactions (i.e. competition and predation) are expected to be among the processes that produce checkerboard distribution of species. However, no relationship between checkerboardness and latitude has been uncovered. We tested Odonata assemblages worldwide for segregation patterns using a faunistic dataset (395 species arranged in 386 natural communities) spanning a wide latitudinal range (87°). We used co-occurrence analyses (C-score index and Standardized Effect Size) as an estimate of checkerboardness then correlated the occurrence of segregation to latitude. Odonata followed the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient at the regional scale (i.e. country scale) within our analyzed assemblages spanning, whereas local richness (i.e. community scale) did not follow the same pattern. Odonata assemblages structured with segregation are more common going from high to low latitudes, and local species richness have no effect on the pattern. We summarized hypotheses on how biotic interactions or ecological and historical processes can influence the spatial patterns in the checkerboards of assemblages and presented promising ways to help to gain a better mechanistic understanding of the drivers of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient. Keywords Dragonflies · Co-occurrence · Latitude · Biological interactions · C-score · Community structure
Introduction Latitude is known to deeply affect (directly or indirectly) several elements of life on our planet. Some of these effects generate similar spatial patterns in diverse taxa and can be conceptualized in ecogeographical rules that ecologists were able to uncover and to generalize during the past 200 years (i.e. Mileikovsky 1971; Rapoport 1975; Stevens 1989). By far the most important and general pattern in biodiversity across regions and taxa is the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient Our study on Odonata is the first evidence for species pattern of checkerboardness along the latitudinal gradient. This lays the basis for new insights on LDG and further generalizations across taxa. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04687-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Francesco Cerini [email protected] 1
Dipartimento Di Scienze, Università Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
(LDG): species richness is highest in equatorial regions and declines toward the poles (Hillebrand 2004; Pontarp et al. 2018). The LDG holds for many taxa, ectotherms and endotherms
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