Come to the dark side! The role of functional traits inshaping dark diversity patterns of south-easternEuropean hoverflies
| Main Authors: | Miličić Marija, Popov Snežana, Vujić Ante, Ivošević Bojana, Cardoso Pedro |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article eJournal |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
https://zenodo.org/record/3694730 |
Daftar Isi:
- 1. Dark diversity represents the set of species that can potentially inhabita given area under particular ecological conditions, but are currently ‘missing’ from asite. This concept allows characterisation of the mechanisms determining why speciesare sometimes absent from an area that seems ecologically suitable for them.2. The aim of this study was to determine the dark diversity of hoverflies insouth-eastern Europe and to discuss the role of different functional traits that mightincrease the likelihood of species contributing to dark diversity. Based on expertopinion, the Syrph the Net database and known occurrences of species, the studyestimated species pools, and observed and dark diversities within each of 11 definedvegetation types for 564 hoverfly species registered in south-eastern Europe. To detectthe most important functional traits contributing to species being in dark diversity acrossdifferent vegetation types, a random forest algorithm and respective statistics for variableimportance were used.3. The highest dark diversity was found for southwest Balkan sub-Mediterraneanmixed oak forest type, whereas the lowest was in Mediterranean mixed forest type. Threelarval feeding modes (saproxylic, and phytophagous on bulbs or roots) were found to bemost important for determining the probability of a species contributing to hoverfly darkdiversity, based on univariate correlations and random forest analysis.4. This study shows that studying dark diversity might provide important insights intowhat drives community assembly in south-eastern European hoverflies, especially itsmissing components, and contributes to more precise conservation prioritisation of bothhoverfly species and their habitats.