@misc{10481/57822,
year = {2018},
month = {9},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10481/57822},
abstract = {Assemblage responses to environmental gradients are key to
understand the general principles behind the assembly and functioning of
communities. The spatially and temporally uneven distribution of water availability
in drylands creates strong aridity gradients. While the effects of spatial variations
of aridity are relatively well known, the influence of the highly-unpredictable seasonal
and inter-annual precipitations on dryland communities has been seldom addressed.
Aims: Here, we study the seasonal and inter-annual responses of dung beetle. Dung beetle abundance and species richness showed large seasonal
variations, but remained relatively similar between years. Indeed, aridity and its
interaction with season and year were the strongest correlates of variations in species
richness and composition. Increasing aridity resulted in decreasing species
richness and an ordered replacement of species, namely the substitution of the
Mediterranean fauna by desert assemblages dominated by saprophagous and
generalist species both in space towards the Sahara and in the dry season.},
organization = {Indradatta deCastro-Arrazola was funded by an FPI grant from the Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation (BES-2012-054353). This work was supported by the Spanish
Ministry of Science and Innovation project SCARPO (grant CGL2011-29317).},
publisher = {PeerJ},
keywords = {Water availability},
keywords = {Beta diversity partitioning},
keywords = {Environmental filtering},
keywords = {Community structure},
keywords = {Biodiversity},
title = {Spatial and temporal variations of aridity shape dung beetle assemblages towards the Sahara desert},
doi = {10.7717/peerj.5210},
author = {DeCastro Arrazola, Indradatta and Hortal, Joaquín and Moretti, Marco and Sánchez Piñero, Francisco},
}