Disentangling vegetation diversity from climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity for explaining animal geographic patterns

Borja Jiménez-Alfaro; Milan Chytrý; Ladislav Mucina; James B. Grace; Marcel Rejmánek

doi:10.1002/ece3.1972

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Disentangling vegetation diversity from climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity for explaining animal geographic patterns

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Disentangling vegetation diversity from climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity for explaining animal geographic patterns

Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Milan Chytrý, Ladislav Mucina, James B. Grace and Marcel Rejmánek

Ecology and evolution, Vol.6(5), pp.1515-1526

2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1972

PMCID: PMC4747316

PMID: 26900451

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Abstract

Animal diversity

diversity patterns

energy hypothesis

habitat heterogeneity

Original Research

plant community

productivity

vegetation

Broad-scale animal diversity patterns have been traditionally explained by hypotheses focused on climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity, without considering the direct influence of vegetation structure and composition. However, integrating these factors when considering plant–animal correlates still poses a major challenge because plant communities are controlled by abiotic factors that may, at the same time, influence animal distributions. By testing whether the number and variation of plant community types in Europe explain country-level diversity in six animal groups, we propose a conceptual framework in which vegetation diversity represents a bridge between abiotic factors and animal diversity. We show that vegetation diversity explains variation in animal richness not accounted for by altitudinal range or potential evapotranspiration, being the best predictor for butterflies, beetles, and amphibians. Moreover, the dissimilarity of plant community types explains the highest proportion of variation in animal assemblages across the studied regions, an effect that outperforms the effect of climate and their shared contribution with pure spatial variation. Our results at the country level suggest that vegetation diversity, as estimated from broad-scale classifications of plant communities, may contribute to our understanding of animal richness and may be disentangled, at least to a degree, from climate–energy and abiotic habitat heterogeneity.

Details

Title: Disentangling vegetation diversity from climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity for explaining animal geographic patterns
Authors/Creators: Borja Jiménez-Alfaro - Masaryk University
Milan Chytrý - Masaryk University
Ladislav Mucina - Stellenbosch University
James B. Grace - United States Geological Survey
Marcel Rejmánek - University of California, Davis
Publication Details: Ecology and evolution, Vol.6(5), pp.1515-1526
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc
Grant note: 14‐36079G / Czech Science Foundation European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0037 / Employment of Best Young Scientists for International Cooperation Empowerment
Identifiers: 991005580038407891
Murdoch Affiliation: Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Citation topics: 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology; 3.40 Forestry; 3.40.195 Biodiversity Conservation
Web Of Science research areas: Ecology; Evolutionary Biology
ESI research areas: Environment/Ecology