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Competition matters: Determining the drivers of land snail community assembly among limestone karst areas in northern Vietnam.

ABSTRACT: The insular limestone karsts of northern Vietnam harbor a very rich biodiversity. Many taxa are strongly associated with these environments, and individual species communities can differ considerably among karst areas. The exact processes that have shaped the biotic composition of these habitats, however, remain largely unknown. In this study, the role of two major processes for the assembly of snail communities on limestone karsts was investigated, interspecific competition and filtering of taxa due to geographical factors. Communities of operculate land snails of the genus Cyclophorus were studied using the dry and fluid-preserved specimen collections of the Natural History Museum, London. Phylogenetic distances (based on a Bayesian analysis using DNA sequence data) and shell characters (based on 200 semilandmarks) were used as proxies for ecological similarity and were analyzed to reveal patterns of overdispersion (indicating competition) or clustering (indicating filtering) in observed communities compared to random communities. Among the seven studied karst areas, a total of 15 Cyclophorus lineages were found. Unique communities were present in each area. The analyses revealed phylogenetic overdispersion in six and morphological overdispersion in four of seven karst areas. The pattern of frequent phylogenetic overdispersion indicated that competition among lineages is the major process shaping the Cyclophorus communities studied. The Coastal Area, which was phylogenetically overdispersed, showed a clear morphological clustering, which could have been caused by similar ecological adaptations among taxa in this environment. Only the community in the Cuc Phuong Area showed a pattern of phylogenetic clustering, which was partly caused by an absence of a certain, phylogenetically very distinct group in this region. Filtering due to geographical factors could have been involved here. This study shows how museum collections can be used to examine community assembly and contributes to the understanding of the processes that have shaped karst communities in Vietnam.

SUBMITTER: von Oheimb PV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5916308 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Competition matters: Determining the drivers of land snail community assembly among limestone karst areas in northern Vietnam.

von Oheimb Parm Viktor PV von Oheimb Katharina C M KCM Hirano Takahiro T Do Tu Van TV Luong Hao Van HV Ablett Jonathan J Pham Sang Van SV Naggs Fred F

Ecology and evolution 20180326 8

The insular limestone karsts of northern Vietnam harbor a very rich biodiversity. Many taxa are strongly associated with these environments, and individual species communities can differ considerably among karst areas. The exact processes that have shaped the biotic composition of these habitats, however, remain largely unknown. In this study, the role of two major processes for the assembly of snail communities on limestone karsts was investigated, interspecific competition and filtering of tax ...[more]

PMID: 29721286

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Project description:Limestone karsts can form terrestrial habitat islands for calcium-dependent organisms. In Vietnam, many karst habitats are threatened, while their rich biodiversity is still far from being thoroughly explored. Given that conservation of karst biota strongly relies on correct species identification, the presence of undetected cryptic species can pose severe problems. The present study focuses on cryptic diversity among karst-inhabiting land snails of the genus Cyclophorus in northern Vietnam, where specimens with a similar shell morphology have been reported from various regions. In order to examine the diversity and evolutionary history of this "widespread morphotype", we generated a Bayesian phylogeny based on DNA sequence data. Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) and the Bayesian implementation of the Poisson tree processes model (bPTP) contributed to species delimitation and analyses of shell shape and size aided the morphological characterisation of individual species. We found that the examined specimens of the widespread morphotype did not form a single monophyletic group in the phylogeny but clustered into several different clades. We delimited nine different species that develop the widespread morphotype and described four of them as new. Processes of convergent evolution were probably involved in the origin of the delimited species, while their generally allopatric distribution could result from interspecific competition. Our findings indicate ongoing processes of speciation and a potential case of morphological character displacement. The high degree of morphological overlap found among the species underlines the importance of DNA sequence data for species delimitation and description in the genus Cyclophorus. Given the findings of the present study and the high potential that as yet undiscovered cryptic taxa have also evolved in other groups of karst-inhabiting organisms, we argue for a systematic and efficient detection and description of Vietnam's karst biodiversity to provide a solid basis for future conservation planning.

Dataset Information

Competition matters: Determining the drivers of land snail community assembly among limestone karst areas in northern Vietnam.

Publications

Competition matters: Determining the drivers of land snail community assembly among limestone karst areas in northern Vietnam.

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