Biotic interactions in species distribution modelling: 10 questions to guide interpretation and avoid false conclusions

作者：Carsten F. Dormann, Maria Bobrowski, D. Matthias Dehling, David James Harris, Florian Hartig, Heike Lischke, Marco Moretti, Jörn Pagel, Stefan Pinkert, Matthias Schleuning, Susanne Isabel Schmidt, Christine S. Sheppard, Manuel J. Steinbauer, Dirk Zeuss, Casper Kraan · 发表于：Global Ecology and Biogeography · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1111/geb.12759 · 被引用次数：346 · 研究领域：Species Distribution and Climate Change、Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Abstract Aim Recent studies increasingly use statistical methods to infer biotic interactions from co‐occurrence information at a large spatial scale. However, disentangling biotic interactions from other factors that can affect co‐occurrence patterns at the macroscale is a major challenge. Approach We present a set of questions that analysts and reviewers should ask to avoid erroneously attributing species association patterns to biotic interactions. Our questions relate to the appropriateness of data and models, the causality behind a correlative signal, and the problems associated with static data from dynamic systems. We summarize caveats reported by macroecological studies of biotic interactions and examine whether conclusions on the presence of biotic interactions are supported by the modelling approaches used. Findings Irrespective of the method used, studies that set out to test for biotic interactions find statistical associations in species’ co‐occurrences. Yet, when compared with our list of questions, few purported interpretations of such associations as biotic interactions hold up to scrutiny. This does not dismiss the presence or importance of biotic interactions, but it highlights the risk of too lenient interpretation of the data. Combining model results with information from experiments and functional traits that are relevant for the biotic interaction of interest might strengthen conclusions. Main conclusions Moving from species‐ to community‐level models, i...