New paper about the community assembly of Atlantic European grasslands

Diego published a new paper in the Journal of Biogeography. This paper is a result of the time he spent in Czech Republic attending the biannual Quantitative Ecology Module held in České Budějovice.

In the study, the authors examined the community assembly of Atlantic European grasslands using taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic (alpha and beta) diversity along spatial and environmental gradients. They found that stochastic processes (i.e. dispersal limitation) and climatic filters are playing a major role at larger scales, filtering functionally and phylogenetically similar species, whereas soil filters (pH and nutrients) and equalizing fitness processes are more important at smaller scales. The authors suggest that, integrating multiple biodiversity facets and examining how they change along spatial and environmental gradients is important to decouple filters operating at larger and smaller scales during the community assembly as well as guiding cross-scale conservation strategies.

Mugnai, M., Trindade, D.P.F., Thierry, M., Kaushik, K., Hrček, J., & Götzenberger, L. 2022. Environment and space drive the community assembly of Atlantic European grasslands: Insights from multiple facets. Journal of Biogeography 49: 699-711.