Range-constrained co-occurrence simulation reveals little niche partitioning among rock-dwelling Montenegrina land snails (Gastropoda: Clausiliidae)

Abstract

Aim

Taxon co-occurrence analysis is commonly used in ecology, but it has not been applied to range-wide distribution data of partly allopatric taxa because existing methods cannot differentiate between distribution-related effects and taxon interactions. Our first aim was to develop a taxon co-occurrence analysis method that is also capable of taking into account the effect of species ranges and can handle faunistic records from museum databases or biodiversity inventories. Our second aim was to test the independence of taxon co-occurrences of rock-dwelling gastropods at different taxonomic levels, with a special focus on the Clausiliidae subfamily Alopiinae, and in particular the genus Montenegrina.

Location

Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe (46N–36N, 13.5E–28E).

Methods

We introduced a taxon-specific metric that characterizes the occurrence probability at a given location. This probability was calculated as a distance-weighted mean of the taxon’s presence and absence records at all sites. We applied corrections to account for the biases introduced by varying sampling intensity in our dataset. Then we used probabilistic null-models to simulate taxon distributions under the null hypothesis of no taxon interactions and calculated pairwise and cumulated co-occurrences. Independence of taxon occurrences was tested by comparing observed co-occurrences to simulated values.

Results

We observed significantly fewer co-occurrences among species and intra-generic lineages of Montenegrina than expected under the assumption of no taxon interaction.

Main conclusions

Fewer than expected co-occurrences among species and intrageneric clades indicate that species divergence preceded niche partitioning. This suggests a primary role of non-adaptive processes in the speciation of rock-dwelling gastropods. The method can account for the effects of distributional constraints in range-wide datasets, making it suitable for testing ecological, biogeographical, or evolutionary hypotheses where interactions of partly allopatric taxa are in question.