Beetles as a model to analyse the effect of ecological niche and dispersal limitation on macroecological patterns

To improve our understanding of global diversity patterns it is necessary (i) to assess the relative contribution of environmental constraint and dispersal limitation in defining species distributions across different biological systems, and (ii) to identify which features of biological systems make one or the other type dominate. In this proposal, we will use beetle assemblages as study system to address the aforementioned central ecological questions. Their outstanding diversity allows assessing macroecological patterns for multiple beetle groups (comparative biogeography), and to systematically sample and sequence local communities, again for multiple taxonomic groups, producing joint estimates of how biological diversity varies at multiple genealogical levels from genetic variants to species. This type of data enhance novel approaches aiming to infer the processes controlling species ranges and thus communities, through phylogenetic scaling of macroecological patterns (multi-hierarchical macroecology). We aim to take advantage of the two aforementioned approaches to produce novel, unique predictions to assess the relative importance of niche constraints and dispersal limitation in determining macroecological patterns of beetles at different spatial scales.

Andrés Baselga (co-PI), Carola Gómez-Rodríguez (co-PI), Marcos González, Javier Iglesias, M. Olalla Lorenzo-Carballa, Ramiro Martín-Devasa, Sara Martínez-Santalla and Victoria Formoso-Freire.

• 01
  To assess the relative relevance of ecological niches and dispersal limitation in the spatial turnover of biological communities (multi-hierarchical approach)
• 02 To estimate the effect of climate change on species’ altitudinal ranges
• 03 To build an integrated method contrasting species and genetic diversity of hyperdiverse biological communities.
• 04 To build a comprehensive database of European beetle species (presence/absence and traits).
• 05 To develop cross-taxa multivariate approaches for the assessment of dispersal limitation and ecological niche constraints in large-scale biodiversity patterns of beetles.
• 06 To develop new methods for the assessment of beta diversity patterns.

• G01
  MULTI-HIERARCHICAL

  Baselga A, Gómez-Rodríguez C, Araújo MB, Castro-Insua A, Arenas M, Posada D, Vogler AP. 2022. Joint analysis of species and genetic variation to quantify the role of dispersal and environmental constraints in community turnover. Ecography 2022: e05808

• G02
  ALTITUDINAL RANGES

  Rodríguez-Pacheco A, Formoso-Freire V, Lorenzo-Carballa MO, Baselga A, Gómez-Rodríguez C. 2024. Thermophilization and reshuffling of montane leaf beetle communities over a two decade period. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 62: 321-331

• G03
  SPECIES vs. GENETIC

  Formoso-Freire V, Baselga A, Gómez-Rodríguez C. 2025. Climatic stability predicts the congruence between species abundance and genetic diversity. Ecography 2025: e07200

• G06
  BETA DIVERSITY

  Baselga A, Martín-Devasa R, Gómez-Rodríguez C. 2025. Areas of high biodiversity value evidenced by the spatial scaling of phylogenetic uniqueness. Ecology Letters 28: e70179

• G06
  BETA DIVERSITY

  Martín-Devasa R, Martínez-Santalla S, Gómez-Rodríguez C, Crujeiras RM, Baselga A. 2022. Comparing distance-decay parameters: a novel test under pairwise dependence. Ecological Informatics 72: 101894

• G06
  BETA DIVERSITY

  Martín-Devasa R, Martínez-Santalla S, Gómez-Rodríguez C, Crujeiras RM, Baselga A. 2022. Species range size shapes distance decay in community similarity. Diversity and Distributions 28:1348–1357

• G06
  BETA DIVERSITY

  Martínez-Santalla S, Martín-Devasa R, Gómez-Rodríguez C, Crujeiras RM, Baselga A. 2022. Assessing the non-linear decay of community similarity: permutation and site-block resampling significance tests. Journal of Biogeography 49: 968-978

• G00
  EVOLUTIONARY MECHANISMS

  Folgar-Cameán Y, Gómez-Rodríguez C, Konstantinov A, Baselga A. 2022. Hiding among holes: mechanisms underlying the evolution of masquerade in flea beetles (Chrysomelidae). Ecological Entomology, 47: 137-145

1. Spatial scaling of phylogenetic uniqueness

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2. Unified Models of Biological Diversity: SADs vs. SGDs

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3. Community reshuffling in mountain systems

1. Invertebrate Biogeography

2. Distance-decay

3. Multi-hierarchical macroecology

• BETAPART UPDATE: Distance-decay functions

  Baselga A, Orme CDL, Villéger S, De Bortoli J, Leprieur F., Logez M, Martínez-Santalla S, Martín-Devasa R, Gómez-Rodríguez C, Crujeiras RM. 2023. betapart: Partitioning beta diversity into turnover and nestedness components. R package version 1.6. Available at: http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=betapart

• Pérez-Vidal S., A. Baselga and C. Gómez Rodríguez (2025). Diversidad e importancia de los insectos: Guía docente. [Diversity and relevance of insects: Teaching Plan]. Publicacións e Intercambio Científico da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. ISBN 9788410142787 [Bookshop] / [Library loan]

• Martínez-Santalla S., C. Gómez-Rodríguez and A. Baselga (2024). Análisis del descenso de la similitud biótica con la distancia espacial (distance-decay) en Ecología de Comunidades y Biogeografía. Nova Acta Científica Compostelana 31: nacc.id9763 [In Spanish] [pdf]

• Formoso-Freire, Victoria (2026). Desequilibrio climático a diferentes escalas: implicaciones para la modelización de la biodiversidad. | Climatic disquilibrium across scales: implications for biodiversity modelling.

  Supervisors: Andrés Baselga and Carola Gómez-Rodríguez

  Universidade de Santiago de Compostela | July 15th, 2026