Web of Science: 3 citations, Scopus: 3 citations, Google Scholar: citations,
Introduced ant species occupy empty climatic niches in Europe
Arnan, Xavier (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Angulo Aguado, Elena (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Espanya). Estación Biológica de Doñana)
Boulay, Raphaël (University François Rabelais of Tours. Institute of Insect Biology)
Molowny-Horas, Roberto (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Cerdá, Xim (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Espanya). Estación Biológica de Doñana)
Retana Alumbreros, Javier (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)

Date: 2021
Abstract: Exploring shifts in the climatic niches of introduced species can provide significant insight into the mechanisms underlying the invasion process and the associated impacts on biodiversity. We aim to test the phylogenetic signal hypothesis in native and introduced species in Europe by examining climatic niche similarity. We examined data from 134 ant species commonly found in western Europe; 130 were native species, and 4 were introduced species. We characterized their distribution patterns using species records from different databases, determined their phylogenetic relatedness, and tested for a phylogenetic signal in their optimal climatic niches. We then compared the introduced species' climatic niches in Europe with their climatic niches in their native ranges and with the climatic niches of their closest relative species in Europe. We found a strong phylogenetic signal in the optimal climatic niches of the most common ant species in Europe; however, this signal was weak for the main climatic variables that affect the distributions of introduced versus native species. Also, introduced species occupied different climatic niches in Europe than in their native ranges; furthermore, their European climatic niches did not resemble those of their closest relative species in Europe. We further discovered that there was not much concordance between the climatic niches of introduced species in their native ranges and climatic conditions in Europe. Our findings suggest that phylogenetics do indeed constrain shifts in the climatic niches of native European ant species. However, introduced species would not face such constraints and seemed to occupy relatively empty climatic niches.
Rights: Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. Creative Commons
Language: Anglès
Document: Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject: Biodiversity ; Community ecology ; Ecosystem ecology ; Invasive species ; Ecology
Published in: Scientific reports, Vol. 11 (February 2021) , art. 3280, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82982-y
PMID: 33558646


11 p, 1.9 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles

 Record created 2022-02-07, last modified 2023-10-01



   Favorit i Compartir