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Specialists in ancient trees are more affected by climate than generalists.

ABSTRACT: Ancient trees are considered one of the most important habitats for biodiversity in Europe and North America. They support exceptional numbers of specialized species, including a range of rare and endangered wood-living insects. In this study, we use a dataset of 105 sites spanning a climatic gradient along the oak range of Norway and Sweden to investigate the importance of temperature and precipitation on beetle species richness in ancient, hollow oak trees. We expected that increased summer temperature would positively influence all wood-living beetle species whereas precipitation would be less important with a negligible or negative impact. Surprisingly, only oak-specialist beetles with a northern distribution increased in species richness with temperature. Few specialist beetles and no generalist beetles responded to the rise of 4°C in summer as covered by our climatic gradient. The negative effect of precipitation affected more specialist species than did temperature, whereas the generalists remained unaffected. In summary, we suggest that increased summer temperature is likely to benefit a few specialist beetles within this dead wood community, but a larger number of specialists are likely to decline due to increased precipitation. In addition, generalist species will remain unaffected. To minimize adverse impacts of climate change on this important community, long-term management plans for ancient trees are important.

SUBMITTER: Gough LA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4813105 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Specialists in ancient trees are more affected by climate than generalists.

Gough Leonie A LA Sverdrup-Thygeson Anne A Milberg Per P Pilskog Hanne E HE Jansson Nicklas N Jonsell Mats M Birkemoe Tone T

Ecology and evolution 20151117 23

Ancient trees are considered one of the most important habitats for biodiversity in Europe and North America. They support exceptional numbers of specialized species, including a range of rare and endangered wood-living insects. In this study, we use a dataset of 105 sites spanning a climatic gradient along the oak range of Norway and Sweden to investigate the importance of temperature and precipitation on beetle species richness in ancient, hollow oak trees. We expected that increased summer te ...[more]

PMID: 27069612

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Project description:Abstract Specialization is a widespread but highly ambiguous and context‐dependent ecological concept. This quality makes comparisons across related studies difficult and makes associated terms such as “specialist” and “generalist” scientifically obscure. Here, we present a metric‐based framework to quantify specialization in 141 Quercus species using functional traits, biogeography, and species interactions. Rankings of specialization based on five metrics were used to answer questions about how specialization is used colloquially (i.e., individual species assessment by experts) and influenced by phylogenetics (Ancestral Character State Reconstruction, Automatic Shift Detection), biogeography (patterns of clustering by region and with climate), and species threat level (IUCN Red List). Metric‐based ranking can be representative of specialization in a consistent and practical manner, correlating with IUCN Red List data, and the mean scores of individual expert assessments. Specialization is shown to be highly correlated with precipitation seasonality and only moderately influenced by evolutionary history. Data‐deficient species were more likely to be highly specialized, and higher specialization was positively correlated with greater IUCN threat level. Frameworks for characterizing specialization and generalization can be done using metric ranking and can turn concepts that are often unclear into a definitive system. Metric‐based rankings of specialization can also be used to reveal interesting insights about a clade's evolutionary history and geographic distribution when paired with the related phylogenetic and geographic data. Metric‐based rankings can be applied to other systems and be a valuable tool for identifying species at risk and in need of conservation. A variety of metrics related to specialization are used to quantify and rank the concept in 141 species of Quercus (oaks). These rankings are used to explore evolutionary and biogeographic patterns, as well as specialization as a concept's usage by scientists.

Dataset Information

Specialists in ancient trees are more affected by climate than generalists.

Publications

Specialists in ancient trees are more affected by climate than generalists.

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