It is important to understand how biotic communities are organized, because that will determine how they respond to environmental changes. Beyond the number of species present in a community, two other aspects of diversity can provide useful information about the processes of community assembly. These aspects include how species are related to each other (phylogenetic diversity) and how similar they are in the ecological functions they perform (functional diversity).
In this study we investigate how different factors influence the phylogenetic and functional diversity of vertebrate herbivores across the Arctic tundra biome. We chose this group of organisms because herbivores play key ecological roles in tundra ecosystems. In turn, these ecosystems are likely to change substantially in response to the rapid environmental changes in this region. For example, ongoing warming and the northward expansion of boreal species could change the structure of herbivore communities in the Arctic. Further, Arctic vertebrate herbivore communities include species as functionally dissimilar as migratory, social grazers and solitary resident browsers, and as phylogenetically dissimilar as geese and ruminants.
We found that the functional and phylogenetic diversity of herbivore communities in the Arctic are driven by both bottom‐up and top‐down trophic interactions, as well as climatic severity. Under future warming and northward movement of predators, herbivore communities may become more phylogenetically and functionally diverse, with consequences to the functioning of tundra ecosystems.
Reference: Speed, J.D.M., Skjelbred, I.A., Barrio, I.C., Martin, M.D., Berteaux, D., Bueno, C.G., Christie, K.S., Forbes, B.F., Forbey, J., Fortin, D., Grytnes, J.A., Hoset, K.S., Lecomte, N., Marteinsdóttir, B., Mosbacher, J.B., Pedersen, A.O., Ravolainen, V., Rees, E.C., Skarin, A., Sokolova, N., Thornhill, A.H., Tombre, I., Soininen, E.M. (2019) Trophic interactions and abiotic factors drive functional and phylogenetic structure of vertebrate herbivore communities across the Arctic tundra biome. Ecography
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04347
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Picture: An example of a phylogenetically diverse herbivore assemblage, with a Svalbard reindeer and a rock ptarmigan (photo: N. Lecomte, University of Moncton, 2019)