Changes in bee functional traits at community and intraspecific levels along an elevational gradient in a Mexical-type scrubland

Understanding the causes of morphological variation of organisms along climatic gradients has been a central challenge in ecological research. We studied the variation of community weighted mean (CWM) and two functional diversity metrics (Rao-Q and functional richness) computed for five morphologica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oecologia 2022-10, Vol.200 (1-2), p.145-158
Main Authors: Osorio-Canadas, Sergio, Flores-Hernández, Noé, Sánchez-Ortiz, Tania, Valiente-Banuet, Alfonso
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bees
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Body size
Body Size - physiology
Community Ecology–Original Research
Ecological research
Ecology
Energy theory
Environmental changes
Hair
Hydrology/Water Resources
Insulating materials
Life Sciences
Morphology
Phenotype
Physiological aspects
Plant Sciences
Thermal insulation
Tibia
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Summary:Understanding the causes of morphological variation of organisms along climatic gradients has been a central challenge in ecological research. We studied the variation of community weighted mean (CWM) and two functional diversity metrics (Rao-Q and functional richness) computed for five morphological traits of wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) related to thermal performance (namely body size, relative appendage length and hairiness), at community and interspecific levels, along an elevation gradient in a Mexical-type scrubland. At the community level we found a decreasing CWM of body size pattern with increasing elevation which is consistent with the species-energy theory (and contrary to Bergmann’s rule). We also found an increase in the CWM of relative tibia length, which is contrary to Allen's rule. Additionally, we found an increase in the CWM of relative hair length towards high levels of elevation, which would be consistent with the hypothesis that hairiness plays an important role as thermal insulation. We found that functional diversity was larger at low elevations with respect to high elevation for body size and hair length, which could imply that highland communities were more sensitive towards environmental changes than lowland communities. Overall, at intraspecific level, most of species showed no pattern for any of the traits along the elevation gradient. Future research should provide further evidence on the possible behavioral or physiological mechanisms behind it.
ISSN:0029-8549
1432-1939
DOI:10.1007/s00442-022-05248-y