Detecting turnover among complex communities using null models: a case study with sky-island haemosporidian parasites

Turnover in species composition between sites, or beta diversity, is a critical component of species diversity that is typically influenced by geography, environment, and biotic interactions. Quantifying turnover is particularly challenging, however, in multi-host, multi-parasite assemblages where undersampling is unavoidable, resulting in inflated estimates of turnover and uncertainty about its spatial scale. We developed and implemented a framework using null models to test for community turnover in avian haemosporidian communities of three sky islands in the southwestern United States. We screened 776 birds for haemosporidian parasites from three genera (Parahaemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon) by amplifying and sequencing a mitochondrial DNA barcode. We detected infections in 280 birds (36.1%), sequenced 357 infections, and found a total of 99 parasite haplotypes. When compared to communities simulated from a regional pool, we observed more unique, single-mountain haplotypes and fewer haplotypes shared among three mountain ranges than expected, indicating that haemosporidian communities differ to some degree among adjacent mountain ranges. These results were robust even after pruning datasets to include only identical sets of host species, and they were consistent for two of the three haemosporidian genera. The two more distant mountain ranges were more similar to each other than the one located centrally, suggesting that the differences we detected were due to stochastic colonization-extirpation dynamics. These results demonstrate that avian haemosporidian communities of temperate-zone forests differ on relatively fine spatial scales between adjacent sky islands. Null models are essential tools for testing the spatial scale of turnover in complex, undersampled, and poorly known systems.

Automated summary

The turnover in species composition, or beta diversity, is influenced by geography, environment, and biotic interactions. The study found that avian haemosporidian communities in temperate-zone forests differ on relatively fine spatial scales between adjacent sky islands. Null models are essential tools for testing the spatial scale of turnover in complex and undersampled systems.