Joint species-trait distribution modeling: The role of intraspecific trait variation in community assembly.

Abstract

The links between intraspecific trait variation and community assembly remain little studied, partially due to the lack of statistical methods to jointly model intraspecific trait variation and species abundances at the community level. Here, we extend the joint species distribution modeling (JSDM) framework into the joint species-trait distribution modeling (JSTDM) framework to explicitly link species abundances to phenotypic variation in traits for multiple species simultaneously. Using a case study of 65 tundra plant species abundances and 3 key functional traits measured across 325 sites, we show how the JSTDM approach (1) estimates the statistical associations among species abundances, species-level traits, and site-level traits, relative to environmental variation; (2) improves predictions on trait variation by using information on species abundances; and (3) generates hypotheses about trait-driven community assembly mechanisms. The JSTDM methodology presented in this study allows assessing the interplay between species abundances and traits at the community level, providing the much needed modeling tools to quantify the role of phenotypic trait variation in eco-evolutionary community assembly.

Plant phenotyping relevance

植物の機能形質変異を種 abundance と共同モデル化する新しい統計手法を中心に提示しており、形質変異の推定・予測が主要な方法論的成果である。

Code and data availability

The paper's data availability statement explicitly deposits the tundra plant trait/abundance data and analysis scripts on Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.15280766), which is an allowed URL and matches the reference to 'Data and Scripts for Joint Species-Trait Distribution Modelling...'. This qualifies as a paper-specific,公开