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Competition and environmental gradients structure Canidae assemblages across the planet

Aim The phylogenetic information of assemblages carries the signature of ecological and evolutionary processes that assembled these communities. Closely related species, under similar environmental conditions, are likely to present similar traits due to environmental filtering. However, if species are too similar, it is unlikely that they will co-occur because of competitive exclusion. Identifying the mechanisms that shape communities is not simple, as they can vary spatially. Here, we investigated how the phylogenetic structure of Canidae is affected across the globe by the environment and competition. Location Americas, Eurasia, and Africa. Time period Present. Major taxa studied Canidae. Methods We first identified phylogenetically clustered and overdispersed Canidae assemblages over the planet. Then, we apply Structural Equation Models in these communities in order to identify the effect that temperature, vegetation cover, human impact, and body size dissimilarity have on the global distribution of canids. Results South America and Asia present a high concentration of clustered communities, whereas Central America, Europe, and North America show phylogenetically overdispersed assemblages. Vegetation cover and human impact are the most important variables to explain the patterns of phylogenetic structure in overdispersed and clustered communities, respectively, followed by temperature and body size dissimilarity. Interestingly we found that more body size dissimilarity is associated with more clustering in clustered communities, but with more overdispersion in overdispersed communities. Main conclusion Canidae community composition across the world presents significant patterns of clustering and overdispersion, which vary following mainly the environmental gradient, suggesting habitat filtering as the main force acting on Canidae assemblages. We conjecture that competition may still have played an important role, because character displacement seems to have driven species to diverge in their body.