The role of environment, dispersal and competition in explaining reduced co-occurrence among related species

The composition of ecological assemblages depends on a variety of factors including environmental filtering, biotic interactions and dispersal limitation. By evaluating the phylogenetic pattern of assemblages, we gain insight into the relative contribution of these mechanisms to generating observed assemblages. We address some limitations in the field of community phylogenetics by using simulations, biologically relevant null models, and cost distance analysis to evaluate simultaneous mechanisms leading to observed patterns of co-occurrence. Building from past studies of phylogenetic community structure, we applied our approach to hummingbird assemblages in the Northern Andes. We compared the relationship between relatedness and co-occurrence among predicted assemblages, based on estimates of suitable habitat and dispersal limitation, and observed assemblages. Hummingbird co-occurrence peaked at intermediate relatedness and decreased when a closely-related species was present. This result was most similar to simulations that included simultaneous effects of phylogenetic conservatism and repulsion. In addition, we found older sister taxa were only weakly more separated by geographic barriers, suggesting that time since dispersal is unlikely to be the sole factor influencing co-occurrence of closely related species. Our analysis highlights the role of multiple mechanisms acting simultaneously, and provides a hypothesis for the potential importance of competition at regional scales.