应用生态位模型研究外来入侵物种生态位漂移

由于基础生态位和实际生态位的改变,外来入侵物种在入侵地成功定殖、扩散后常会发生生态位漂移,而物种生态位漂移往往很难直接证明。生态位模型在假设入侵物种的生态位需求保守的前提下,以物种在其原产地的生态位需求为基础,预测其在入侵地的潜在分布,通过比较预测分布与实际分布的差异可以从一定程度上得到外来入侵物种的生态位是否发生漂移的间接证据。以我国入侵杂草胜红蓟在原产地的生态位需求为基础,应用生态位模型预测其在其他地区的潜在分布。研究结果表明,生态位模型可以很好地预测胜红蓟在亚太平洋地区和非洲地区的分布,但在我国,其预测分布与实际分布存在较大差别。胜红蓟在我国预测分布主要为云南、海南、台湾部分地区,而胜红蓟入侵我国后现已广泛分布于长江以南地区,其实际分布比预测分布广泛得多,由此推测胜红蓟在入侵我国后其生态位已经产生了漂移。     

长苞铁杉群落优势种群高度生态位研究

基于天宝岩国家级自然保护区内长苞铁杉群落的调查数据 ,以不同高度作为一维资源位状态 ,以个体多度为生态位计测的资源状态指标 ,对群落中的 1 2个优势树种进行了生态位的计测和分析。结果表明 ,长苞铁杉具有较大的生态位宽度值 ,具有一定的稳定性 ;各优势树种 ,均表现出一定程度的对环境适应的相似性和生态位重叠。长苞铁杉与阳性树种柳杉、耐荫树种中偏阳性树种木荷之间的生态位相似性和生态位重叠值比与耐荫性树种深山含笑、细叶青冈之间的都要大。这些分析结果为珍稀濒危植物长苞铁杉的保护提供了科学依据     

莱州湾鱼类群落优势种生态位

根据2011年5月、8月、10月和12月莱州湾底拖网调查资料,对该海域鱼类群落优势种的生态位进行了研究。结果表明,全年调查共捕获鱼类49种,各季节优势种种类数分别为春季3种,夏季5种,秋季3种,冬季4种。夏、冬季优势种的丛生指数较低,春、秋季较高;冬、春季优势种的平均拥挤度较低,夏、秋季较高。基于欧氏距离的优势种丰度聚类结果同优势度排序结果吻合。主成分分析(PCA)表明,青鳞小沙丁鱼(Sardinella zunasi)和赤鼻棱鳀(Thryssa kammalensis)分别是影响第一轴和第二轴的主要种类。绯鱼衔(Callionymus beniteguri)、鲬(Platycephalus indicus)、髭缟虾虎鱼(Tridentiger barbatus)和短吻红舌鳎(Cynoglossus joyneri)是时空二维生态位宽度最高的种类(2)。时空生态位显著重叠(0.6)的种类有7组,其中银姑鱼(Pennahia argentata)和皮氏叫姑鱼(Johnius belengerii)重叠值最高(0.798)。δ~(13)C值变幅(CR)最大的种类为斑鱼祭(Konosirus punctatus),δ~(15)N值变幅(NR)最大的种类为青鳞小沙丁鱼;青鳞小沙丁鱼和鱼祭生态位总面积超过20,皮氏叫姑鱼生态位总面积最小(1.38)且与其他优势种营养生态位重叠较高。等级聚类、排序、PCA和优势种排序结果较一致,而与时空生态位宽度分析结果差异较大,表明莱州湾鱼类群落结构受洄游鱼类的影响较大。时空生态位宽度较高的种类主要为集群特征不明显的周年定居种(绯鱼衔、鲬、短吻红舌鳎等底层鱼类),而季节洄游种(青鳞小沙丁鱼、鱼祭、赤鼻棱鳀等中上层鱼类)因时间生态位宽度较低导致时空生态位宽度较低。时空生态位和营养生态位分析表明,生态位重叠导致的资源利用性竞争并不是导致莱州湾鱼类群落结构现状的决定性因素,而更多可能是人为干扰形成的。     

Isotopic niche is not equal to trophic niche

The work of Sheppard et al. (Ecol. Lett., 21, 2018, 1395) relies on the strong assumption that isotopic niche is equal to trophic niche. Here I raise three main concerns showing that classic hypotheses built upon trophic niche cannot be directly interpreted in isotopic space. Future studies should always keep isotopic and trophic niches distinct.     

Phylogenetic signal in tooth wear dietary niche proxies

In the absence of independent observational data, ecologists and paleoecologists use proxies for the Eltonian niches of species (i.e., the resource or dietary axes of the niche). Some dietary proxies exploit the fact that mammalian teeth experience wear during mastication, due to both tooth‐on‐tooth and food‐on‐tooth interactions. The distribution and types of wear detectible at micro‐ and macroscales are highly correlated with the resource preferences of individuals and, in turn, species. Because methods that quantify the distribution of tooth wear (i.e., analytical tooth wear methods) do so by direct observation of facets and marks on the teeth of individual animals, dietary inferences derived from them are thought to be independent of the clade to which individuals belong. However, an assumption of clade or phylogenetic independence when making species‐level dietary inferences may be misleading if phylogenetic niche conservatism is widespread among mammals. Herein, we test for phylogenetic signal in data from numerous analytical tooth wear studies, incorporating macrowear (i.e., mesowear) and microwear (i.e., low‐magnification microwear and dental microwear texture analysis). Using two measures of phylogenetic signal, heritability (H²) and Pagel's λ, we find that analytical tooth wear data are not independent of phylogeny and failing to account for such nonindependence leads to overestimation of discriminability among species with different dietary preferences. We suggest that morphological traits inherited from ancestral clades (e.g., tooth shape) influence the ways in which the teeth wear during mastication and constrain the foods individuals of a species can effectively exploit. We do not suggest that tooth wear is simply phylogeny in disguise; the tooth wear of individuals and species likely varies within some range that is set by morphological constraints. We therefore recommend the use of phylogenetic comparative methods in studies of mammalian tooth wear, whenever possible.     

Using ecological niche modelling to evaluate niche stability in deep time

Aim To investigate relative niche stability in species responses to various types of environmental pressure (biotic and abiotic) on geological time‐scales using the fossil record. Location The case study focuses on Late Ordovician articulate brachiopods of the Cincinnati Arch in eastern North America. Methods Species niches were modelled for a suite of fossil brachiopod species based on five environmental variables inferred from sedimentary parameters using GARP and Maxent . Niche stability was assessed by comparison of (1) the degree of overlap of species distribution models developed for a time‐slice and those generated by projecting niche models of the previous time‐slice onto environmental layers of a second time‐slice using GARP and Maxent , (2) Schoener’s D statistic, and (3) the similarity of the contribution of each environmental parameter within Maxent niche models between adjacent time‐slices. Results Late Ordovician brachiopod species conserved their niches with high fidelity during intervals of gradual environmental change but responded to inter‐basinal species invasions through niche evolution. Both native and invasive species exhibited similar levels of niche evolution in the invasion and post‐invasion intervals. Niche evolution was related mostly to decreased variance within the former ecological niche parameters rather than to shifts to new ecospace. Main conclusions Although the species examined exhibited morphological stasis during the study interval, high levels of niche conservatism were observed only during intervals of gradual environmental change. Rapid environmental change, notably inter‐basinal species invasions, resulted in high levels of niche evolution among the focal taxa. Both native and invasive species responded with similar levels of niche evolution during the invasion interval and subsequent environmental reorganization. The assumption of complete niche conservatism frequently employed in ecological niche modelling (ENM) analyses to forecast or hindcast species geographical distributions is more likely to be accurate for climate change studies than for invasive species analyses over geological time‐scales.     

Towards a trait-based quantification of species niche

Aims Although the niche concept is of prime importance in ecology, the quantification of plant species' niches remains difficult. Here we propose that plant functional traits, as determinants of species performance, may be useful tools for quantifying species niche parameters over environmental gradients.Important findings Under this framework, the mean trait values of a species determine its niche position along gradients, and intraspecific trait variability determines its niche breadth. This trait-based approach can provide an operational assessment of niche for a potentially large number of species, making it possible to understand and predict species niche shifts under environmental changes. We further advocate a promising method that recently appeared in the literature, which partitions trait diversity into among- and within-community components as a way to quantify the species niche in units of traits instead of environmental parameters. This approach allows the switch of the focus from ecological niches to trait niches, facilitating the examination of species coexistence along undefined environmental gradients. Altogether, the trait-based approach provides a promising toolkit for quantifying the species ecological niche and for understanding the evolution of species niche and traits.     

红树林区软体动物生态位的三种分析方法

利用广东湛江红树林保护区定量取样获取的软体动物密度数据,根据Shannon-Wiener和Pj．anka公式,分别选用潮带和季节（方法1）、红树植物群落和季节（方法2）、红树植物群落和潮带（方法3）3种不同环境因子组合确定环境资源位点数,从而计算研究区软体动物生态位宽度和物种间重叠值。结果表明,3种分析方法计算结果有差别,采用方法1、方法2和方法3计算的物种生态位宽度分别为0～1．96、0～2．16、0～1．64;生态位重叠指数为0～0．1的种对,方法1、方法2和方法3分别占25．1％、32．8％和21．6％,生态位重叠指数为0．1～0．5的种对,分别占31．6％、36．2％和22．3％,生态位重叠指数〉0．5的种对分别占43．396、3196和56．1％。可见,方法3计算出的生态位重叠指数比其它2种方法的大。物种聚类和排序也验证了3种分析方法的计算结果有差别。将计算结果与实际定量取样比较,表明以红树植物群落和季节为准确定环境资源位点数的分析方法与实际相符,适合红树林区软体动物的生态位研究。     

Niche construction in the light of niche theory

Ecological niche construction, the process whereby an organism improves its environment to enhance its growth and persistence, is an important missing element of niche theory. Niche theory has mainly focused on niche-deteriorating processes, such as resource consumption, predation and competition, which have negative effects on population growth. Here, we integrate niche construction explicitly into modern niche theory. We use a graphical approach to analyse how a species' niche-improving impacts interplay with niche-deteriorating impacts to modify its response to the environment. In a model of two consumers that compete for one limiting resource and one predator, we show how niche construction modifies the traditional niche-deteriorating impacts of its agent or of competing species, and hence the potential for species coexistence. By altering the balance between intraspecific and interspecific competitive effects, niche construction can either generate net interspecific facilitation or strengthen interspecific competition. The adaptive benefit derived from niche construction also strongly affects the realized niche of a niche-constructing species.     

Ditch the niche – is the niche a useful concept in ecology or species distribution modelling?

In this first of three papers we examine the use of niche concepts in ecology and especially in species distribution modelling (SDM). This paper deliberately focuses on the lack of clarity found in the term ‘niche’. Because its meanings are so diverse, the term niche tends to create confusion and requires constant qualification. The literature houses many idiosyncratic ideas of what the niche is, but few examples where niche is more explanatory than the terminologies of population and community ecology or the statistical methods used to implement SDM analyses. In many cases the original (and inspirational) concepts are not directly applicable to our modern applications (e.g. set theory). There are some conceptual limitations found in individual definitions of niche (e.g. the fundamental niche concept), so it is perhaps understandable why more neutral terminology is becoming popular in SDM. An examination of the literature reveals a wide range of uncritical use of niche terminology. Our findings in this paper do not necessarily support the position of niche as a universally useful concept.     

Phylogenetic relationships and ecological niche conservatism in killifish (Profundulidae) in Mesoamerica

The family Profundulidae is a group of small-sized fish species distributed between southern Mexico and Honduras, where they are frequently the only fish representatives at higher elevations in the basins where they occur. We characterized their ecological niche using different methods and metrics drawn from niche modelling and by re-examining phylogenetic relationships of a recently published molecular phylogeny of this family to gain a better understanding of its biogeographic and evolutionary history. We assessed both lines of evidence from the perspective of niche conservatism to set a foundation for discussing hypotheses about the processes underlying the distribution and evolution of the group. In fish clades where the species composition is not clear, we examined whether niche classification could be informative to discriminate groups geographically and ecologically consistent with any of the different hypotheses of valid species. The characterization of the ecological niche was carried out using the Maxent algorithm under different parameterizations and the projection of the presence on the main components of the most relevant environmental coverage, and the niche comparison was calculated with two indices (D and I), both in environmental space and in that projected geographically. With the molecular data, a species tree was generated using the *BEAST method. The comparison of these data was calculated with an age-overlap correlation test. Based on the molecular phylogeny and on niche overlap analyses, we uncovered strong evidence to support the idea that ecologically similar species are not necessarily sister species. The correlation analysis for genetic distance and niche overlap was not significant (P > 0.05). In clades with taxonomic conflicts, we only identified Profundulus oaxacae as a geographically and ecologically distinct group from P. punctatus. All the evidence considered leads us to propose that Profundulidae do not show evidence of niche conservatism and that there are reasons to consider P. oaxacae as a valid species. Our study suggests that niche divergence is a driving evolutionary force that caused the diversification and speciation processes of the Profundulidae, along with the geological and climatic events that promoted the expansion or contraction of suitable environments.     

Morphological and niche divergence of pinyon pines

The environmental variables that define a species ecological niche should be associated with the evolutionary patterns present in the adaptations that resulted from living in these conditions. Thus, when comparing across species, we can expect to find an association between phylogenetically independent phenotypic characters and ecological niche evolution. Few studies have evaluated how organismal phenotypes might mirror patterns of niche evolution if these phenotypes reflect adaptations. Doing so could contribute on the understanding of the origin and maintenance of phenotypic diversity observed in nature. Here, we show the pattern of niche evolution of the pinyon pine lineage (Pinus subsection Cembroides); then, we suggest morphological adaptations possibly related to niche divergence, and finally, we test for correlation between ecological niche and morphology. We demonstrate that niche divergence is the general pattern within the clade and that it is positively correlated with adaptation.     

Ecological niche models of invasive seaweeds

Ecological niche models (ENMs) are commonly used to calculate habitat suitability from species’ occurrence and macroecological data. In invasive species biology, ENMs can be applied to anticipate whether invasive species are likely to establish in an area, to identify critical routes and arrival points, to build risk maps and to predict the extent of potential spread following an introduction. Most studies using ENMs focus on terrestrial organisms and applications in the marine realm are still relatively rare. Here, we review some common methods to build ENMs and their application in seaweed invasion biology. We summarize methods and concepts involved in the development of niche models, show examples of how they have been applied in studies on algae and discuss the application of ENMs in invasive algae research and to predict effects of climate change on seaweed distributions.     

Climatic niche divergence explains angiosperm diversification across clades in China

Diversification rates are critically important for understanding patterns of species richness among clades. However, the effects of climatic niche width on plant diversification rates remain to be elucidated. Based on the phylogenetic, climatic, and distributional information of angiosperms in China, a total of 26 906 species from 182 families were included in this study. We aimed to test relationships between diversification rate and climatic niche width and climatic niche width related variables (including climatic niche divergence, climatic niche position, geographic extent, and climatic niche evolutionary rate) using phylogenetic methods. We found that climatic niche divergence had the largest unique contribution to the diversification rate, while the unique effects of climatic niche width, climatic niche position, geographic extent, and climatic niche evolutionary rate on the diversification rate were negligible. We also observed that the relationship between diversification rate and climatic niche divergence was significantly stronger than the null assumption (artefactual relationship between diversification and clade-level climatic niche width by sampling more species). Our study supports the hypothesis that wider family climatic niche widths explain faster diversification rates through a higher climatic niche divergence rather than through higher geographic extent, higher climatic niche evolutionary rate, or separated climatic niche position. Hence, the results provide a potential explanation for large-scale diversity patterns within families of plants.     

昆承湖优势种鱼类时空-营养生态位

为了解昆承湖优势种鱼类资源利用情况,首先利用生态位方法计算了时间、空间及营养三个资源维度的生态位宽度及重叠值,然后根据时空-营养生态位宽度值将优势种鱼类划分为广位种、中位种和窄位种,最后讨论了生态位宽度及重叠的可能原因。结果显示：刀鲚Coilia nasus、蒙古鲌Chanodichthys mongolicus、似鱎Toxabramis swinhonis、似鳊Pseudobrama simoni、鳙Hypophthalmichthys nobilis、鲢Hypophthalmichthys molitrix、花鱼骨Hemibarbus maculatus、似刺鳊鮈Paracanthobrama guichenoti、大鳍鱊Acheilognathus macropterus和鲫Carassius auratus为优势种。在时间维度：鲢的生态位宽度最大,似鳊的最小;生态位重叠具有显著意义的有24对,占总的53.33%。在空间维度,似刺鳊鮈最大,鲢最小;生态位重叠具有显著意义的有36对,占总的80%。在营养维度,最大的为鲫,最小的为花鱼骨;生态位重叠具有显著意义的有8对,占17.78%...     

Ecological niche differentiation in the Aphelocoma jays: a phylogenetic perspective

The Aphelocoma jays have become an important touchstone in behavioural ecology and biogeography – the corpus of studies of this genus makes it an important point of reference. Aphelocoma evolutionary history, nevertheless, has been the subject of two papers reaching opposite conclusions, even though they were based on the same allozyme data set. Herein, we present a second molecular data set – 500 bases of the ND2 gene – and analyse it cladistically to arrive at a new hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships. Recent hypotheses by other investigators of a hybrid origin of Aphelocoma populations are strongly contradicted. The ecological context within which these evolutionary processes are taking place is characterized using new tools for modelling ecological niches of species along a spectrum from humid tropical to dry temperate habitats. Evolutionary patterns of ecological niches are shown to consist of drastic departures from rate-uniformity and ecological niche conservatism.  © 2003 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2003, 80 , 369–383.