Biotic interactions and environmental filtering both determine earthworm alpha and beta diversity in tropical rainforests

Understanding the relative importance of biotic interactions, multiple environmental drivers, and neutral processes in shaping community diversity and composition is a central question for both theoretical and applied ecology.

We analysed a dataset describing 125 earthworm communities sampled in 10 localities in French Guiana. DNA barcodes were used to delimit operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that we considered as species surrogates to avoid the taxonomic deficit and calculate community-scale species richness and pair-wise Sørensen beta-diversity. We used log-ratio and generalised linear models to highlight the effects of biotic interactions and environment as drivers of alpha diversity, and generalised dissimilarity models to figure out the relative contribution of space and environment to beta-diversity at different spatial extents.

Community-scale alpha diversity was mainly explained by habitat filtering (soil texture) and interspecific competition that limit the number of locally co-existing species.

Beta diversity between pairs of communities was mainly explained by distance when comparing communities in similar habitats, by topography and available soil phosphorus when comparing communities in different habitats, and by distance, elevation and climate when comparing all possible pairs of communities.

While community composition is determined locally by neutral processes and environmental filtering, biogeographic processes linked to dispersal limitation and adaptation to local environment are the most influential on a regional scale. This highlights the complex interplay of dispersal limitation, biotic interactions and environmental filtering during the process of community assembly.