Elevation shapes the reassembly of Anthropocene lizard communities

Nature Ecology & Evolution
Luke O FrishkoffD Luke Mahler

Abstract

Human impacts, especially land-use change, are precipitating biodiversity loss. Yet anthropogenic drivers are layered atop natural biogeographic gradients. We ask whether the effects of anthropogenic habitat conversion depend on climatic context. We studied the structure of Anolis lizard communities in intact and human-modified habitats across natural climate gradients in the northern Dominican Republic. Using community-wide mark-resight methods to control for detection bias, we show that the effects of habitat conversion reverse with elevation (and thus macroclimate temperature). Deforestation reduces abundance and biomass in lowland communities but has no such effect at high elevations. In contrast, forest loss results in no compositional change in the lowlands, but complete community turnover between habitats in the highlands. These contrasting community-level patterns emerge from consistent responses of individual species based on their thermal niches. Community reorganization in the highlands stems from thermal niche tracking and habitat switching by abundant lowland species. We find no support for the hypothesis that climate generalists outperform specialists to succeed in anthropogenic habitats. Instead, warm-climate spe...Continue Reading

References

Oct 8, 1999·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·M L McKinney, J L Lockwood
Nov 22, 2002·Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Part A, Molecular & Integrative Physiology·Carlos A Navas
May 19, 2006·Ecology Letters·Marti J AndersonBrian H McArdle
Mar 28, 2009·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Raymond B HueyTheodore Garland
May 15, 2010·Science·Barry SinervoJack W Sites
Jun 26, 2012·Ecology Letters·Daniel S KarpGretchen C Daily
Oct 30, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Mark VellendSonja Wipf
Apr 18, 2014·Nature·Chase D MendenhallGretchen C Daily
Apr 20, 2014·Science·Maria DornelasAnne E Magurran
Sep 26, 2014·Nature·Matthew R HelmusJonathan B Losos
Dec 30, 2014·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Brian J McGillAnne E Magurran
Apr 4, 2015·Nature·Tim NewboldAndy Purvis
Jun 13, 2015·Science·César CapinhaHenrique Miguel Pereira
Jul 3, 2015·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Greet De CosterJean Paul Metzger
Jul 7, 2015·Global Change Biology·Luke O FrishkoffGretchen C Daily
Aug 25, 2015·Ecology Letters·Ricardo Ribeiro de Castro SolarToby A Gardner
Oct 16, 2015·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·A Justin NowakowskiMaureen A Donnelly
Jun 3, 2016·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·A Justin NowakowskiMaureen A Donnelly
Jul 12, 2016·Ecology Letters·Luke O FrishkoffLeithen K M'Gonigle
Oct 30, 2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Chase D MendenhallGretchen C Daily
Apr 14, 2017·Ecology and Evolution·Ivan V MonaganJohn Vandermeer
May 10, 2017·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·William GodsoeDominique Gravel
Oct 1, 1994·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Pierre LegendrePhilippe Casgrain
Aug 24, 2017·Global Change Biology·Daniel S KarpKai M A Chan
Sep 6, 2017·Scientific Data·Dirk Nikolaus KargerMichael Kessler
Oct 31, 2017·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Jack H HatfieldCristina Banks-Leite
Dec 16, 2017·The American Naturalist·Martha M Muñoz, Jonathan B Losos
Jan 10, 2018·Ecology Letters·A Justin NowakowskiBrian D Todd
Mar 21, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·A Justin NowakowskiBrian D Todd
Apr 20, 2018·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Alex R GundersonManuel Leal

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Mar 5, 2020·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Kristin M WinchellLiam J Revell

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Software Mentioned

WorldClim
JAGS
betapart

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is typically a measure of variation at the genetic, species, and ecosystem level.Discover the latest research on biodiversity data here.