暖温带地区地表甲虫群落谱系结构、功能结构及构建机制

Community ecology seeks to unravel the mechanisms that allow species to coexist in space. Environmental filtering, limiting similarity (interspecific competition) and neutral process are considered as three most important drivers in community assembly. However, how to disentangle the contributions of these processes and to explore the assembly mechanisms based on niche theory or neutral theory still challenge ecologists. The ecological and evolutionary similarity of co-occurring species is key information used to test mechanisms of community assembly. Two different approaches can be utilized to estimate the similarity of species to test community assembly hypotheses: indirectly estimate similarity based on the relatedness of species and directly measure the similarity of species by quantifying one-to-several morphological or physiological traits (i.e. functional traits). Therefore, new phylogenetic and functional approaches can help us estimate the ecological similarity among species, and then determine the processes underlying community assembly. Insects which have short life, high reproductivity and low tolerance to environmental changes might shed new insights to community assembly mechanisms. We plan to select a 20-ha permanent temperate forest plot and five 4-ha satellite plots in Donglingshan Forest Park (Beijing), North China, as the study site. We survey community phylogenetic and functional structure of epigaeic beetles to evaluate the relative importance of three ecological processes. In addition, we also attempt to examine the relative strength of these assembly mechanisms across observed spatial scales.

物种共存一直都是群落生态学中的核心问题之一，环境过滤、种间作用和随机过程被公认为是群落构建的主要驱动力。然而，如何评估它们在群落构建中的相对贡献，仍然是困扰当前生态学家们的难题之一。测量种间相似性是分析群落构建的关键，群落谱系分析通过亲缘关系间接估计种间生态相似性，功能性状分析基于性状测量直接得到种间在重要生态功能维度上的相似性，这两种方法结合在一起来研究群落构建机制问题，可以对双方进行相互补充。有别于已广泛研究的植物群落，昆虫具有生命周期短、繁殖力强以及对环境忍受能力弱的特点，该方面的研究将为理解群落构建机制贡献新的观点。本项目以地表甲虫为研究对象，基于森林大样地平台翔实的环境和植被数据为背景，选择暖温带东灵山大样地及卫星样地为研究地点，采用群落谱系结构和功能结构研究方法，分析环境过滤、种间作用和随机过程在地表甲虫群落构建中的相对贡献，探讨地表甲虫群落的构建机制及其与尺度的关系。

物种共存一直都是群落生态学中的核心问题之一，环境过滤、种间作用和随机过程被公认为是群落构建的主要驱动力。本项目针对这个科学问题开展研究，通过测量种间相似性和群落谱系分析估计种间生态相似性，通过功能性状分析估计生态功能相似性，研究研究群落构建机制。本项目以地表甲虫为研究对象，基于森林大样地平台翔实的环境和植被数据为背景，选择暖温带东灵山大样地及卫星样地为研究地点，采用群落谱系结构和功能结构研究方法，分析了环境过滤、种间作用和随机过程在地表甲虫群落构建中的相对贡献，以探讨地表甲虫群落的构建机制及其与尺度的关系。