Niche evolution in Australian terrestrial mammals? Clarifying scale-dependencies in phylogenetic and functional drivers of co-occurrence

摘要: Interactive forces between competition and habitat filtering drive many biogeographic patterns over evolutionary time scales. However, the responsiveness of assemblages to these two is highly influenced by spatial scale, forming complex niche separation. We explored dependencies quantifying influence phylogeny functional traits in shaping present day native terrestrial mammal at multiple scales, principally identifying scales which evolution operates. modelled distribution 53 species across New South Wales, Australia. Using predicted distributions, we estimated range overlap each pair increasing grain sizes (~0.8, 5.1, 20, 81, 506, 2,025, 8,100 km2). employed a decision tree identify how interactions among phylogenetic relatedness translated levels sympatry found that Australian mammals displayed over-dispersion was inversely related suggesting ecological processes were more influential than defining species. While contribution co-occurrence decreased as scale increased, reverse true for preferences. At same time, also operated different dietary preferences dominated local (<10 km2) while body mass has stronger effect larger Our findings show operate diverged slower along their micro-scale compared macro-scale niche. By combining methods through modelling assessed whether specific particular More importantly, conducting multi-scale analysis avoids categorical assignment traits-to-niches, providing clearer relationship precise scaling axes evolution.