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Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) have emerged as essential tools in the equipment of many ecologists, useful to explore species distributions in space and time and answering an assortment of questions related to biogeography, climate change biology and conservation biology. Historically, most SDM research concentrated on well‐known organisms, especially vertebrates. In recent years, these tools are becoming increasingly important for predicting the distribution of understudied invertebrate taxa. Here, we reviewed the literature published on main terrestrial arthropod predators (ants, ground beetles and spiders) to explore some of the challenges and opportunities of species distribution modelling in mega‐diverse arthropod groups. Location: Global. Methods: Systematic mapping of the literature and bibliometric analysis. Results: Most SDM studies of animals to date have focused either on broad samples of vertebrates or on arthropod species that are charismatic (e.g. butterflies) or economically important (e.g. vectors of disease, crop pests and pollinators). We show that the use of SDMs to map the geography of terrestrial arthropod predators is a nascent phenomenon, with a near‐exponential growth in the number of studies over the past ten years and still limited collaborative networks among researchers. There is a bias in studies towards charismatic species and geographical areas that hold lower levels of diversity but greater availability of data, such as Europe and North America. Conclusions: Arthropods pose particular modelling challenges that add to the ones already present for vertebrates, but they should also offer opportunities for future SDM research as data and new methods are made available. To overcome data limitations, we illustrate the potential of modern data sources and new modelling approaches. We discuss areas of research where SDMs may be combined with dispersal models and increasingly available phylogenetic and functional data to understand evolutionary changes in ranges and range‐limiting traits over past and contemporary time‐scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dramatic insect decline has been documented on the grasslands and forests of European or North American mainland. Yet, other parts of the world and other ecosystems remain much less studied with unknown patterns.Using a unique time‐series dataset, we investigate recent trends on abundance and richness of arthropods sampled in Azorean native forest over 6 years (2013–2018).We test the hypothesis that biodiversity erosion drivers are changing the diversity and relative species abundance structure (species abundance distribution, SAD) of endemics, native non‐endemics and exotic species over time. We also examine temporal trends in abundance for each individual species.In contrast with mainland studies, we observed no decline in overall arthropod diversity, but a clear increase in the diversity of exotic arthropods and some evidence of a tendency for decreasing abundance for some endemic species. We also document stronger species turnover for exotic species, but no specific changes in the SAD.We argue that many changes, particularly in unique systems such as islands, will be noticed not at the richness but mostly at compositional level. Special attention should be given to exotic species which are known to be one of the major drivers of biodiversity erosion on islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on the distribution and vulnerability of invertebrates is often scarce and, as a consequence, this group of organisms is usually neglected in conservation studies. Yet it is possible to reasonably infer ranges and vulnerabilities of species and establish spatial conservation priorities, even with incomplete information. We investigated conservation priorities of hoverflies in Southeast Europe based on species distribution models (SDM) and vulnerability indices., Species distribution models were used to compensate for the lack of knowledge on species ranges. Measures related to geographical rarity, endemism and habitat specialisation were used to assess species vulnerability. Potential distribution and three alternative vulnerability indices were used to calculate two spatial conservation indices: potential Biodiversity Conservation Concern index (pBCC) and potential Biodiversity Conservation Weight (pBCW)., pBCC highlighted areas with a large proportion of highly vulnerable species, even where species richness was low, such as the Danube delta and mid-Aegean islands. It also identified potentially important areas yet-to-be surveyed (e.g. Carpathian mountains), which might deserve future conservation measures. pBCW emphasised areas hosting high richness of both vulnerable and resilient species, such as the eastern Aegean Islands and the eastern part of Crete., We demonstrate that: (i) it is possible to establish conservation priorities at large scales if SDM and simple vulnerability measures are combined; (ii) complementary approaches are necessary to emphasise the importance of areas with different characteristics; and (iii) several understudied areas should be targets of future sampling schemes to confirm their importance for the conservation of hoverfly diversity in Southeast Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Our aim was to determine the relative contribution of species replacement and richness differences to overall beta diversity in Macaronesian spiders, the influence of several biogeographical drivers in shaping such dissimilarity patterns, and how these change according to the dispersal ability of spiders. Location Four Macaronesian archipelagos: the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens and the Canary Islands. Methods Each spider species was assigned to a group relative to its ballooning propensity (frequent, occasional or rare), used as a surrogate of dispersal ability, based on its family membership. Beta diversity was decomposed for each group, by disentangling all compositional differences (overall beta diversity, βtotal) into two components, species replacement (βrepl) and species richness differences (βrich). The effects of island area, environmental heterogeneity, geological age, distance to mainland and inter-island distances on βrepl and βrich were tested by partial Mantel tests and hierarchical partitioning of variation for each mobility group. Results The archipelagos studied had similar intra-archipelagic richness differences, but species replacement was lower within the Azores for the three groups of spiders. The variation in community composition among the archipelagos was determined by species replacement for frequently ballooning spiders, while richness differences dominated for less mobile spiders. Island area was more important for species with higher mobility, while less mobile species were mostly affected by the distance to mainland and inter-island distances. Environmental heterogeneity had an effect, mostly on richness differences, across the three spider groups. Time had only a weak effect on species replacement for less mobile species. Main conclusions The partition of βtotal into βrepl and βrich identified different causes of beta-diversity patterns as driven by the dispersal ability of spiders. Dispersal-limited species responded more strongly to isolation than more mobile species. In contrast, the latter were influenced more by island area. Thus our findings emphasize the importance of interspecific traits and dispersal limitation for structuring species assemblages on islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The species abundance distribution (SAD) has been a central focus of community ecology for over fifty years, and is currently the subject of widespread renewed interest. The gambin model has recently been proposed as a model that provides a superior fit to commonly preferred SAD models. It has also been argued that the model's single parameter (α) presents a potentially informative ecological diversity metric, because it summarises the shape of the SAD in a single number. Despite this potential, few empirical tests of the model have been undertaken, perhaps because the necessary methods and software for fitting the model have not existed. Here, we derive a maximum likelihood method to fit the model, and use it to undertake a comprehensive comparative analysis of the fit of the gambin model. The functions and computational code to fit the model are incorporated in a newly developed free-to-download R package (gambin). We test the gambin model using a variety of datasets and compare the fit of the gambin model to fits obtained using the Poisson lognormal, logseries and zero-sum multinomial distributions. We found that gambin almost universally provided a better fit to the data and that the fit was consistent for a variety of sample grain sizes. We demonstrate how α can be used to differentiate intelligibly between community structures of Azorean arthropods sampled in different land use types. We conclude that gambin presents a flexible model capable of fitting a wide variety of observed SAD data, while providing a useful index of SAD form in its single fitted parameter. As such, gambin has wide potential applicability in the study of SADs, and ecology more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To propose a unified framework for quantifying taxon ( Tβ), phylogenetic ( Pβ) and functional ( Fβ) beta diversity via pairwise comparisons of communities, which allows these types of beta diversity to be partitioned into ecologically meaningful additive components. Location Global, with case studies in Europe and the Azores archipelago. Methods Using trees as a common representation for taxon, phylogenetic and functional diversity, we partition total beta diversity (βtotal) into its replacement (turnover, βrepl) and richness difference (βrich) components according to which part of a global tree was shared by or unique to communities that were being compared. We demonstrate the application of this framework using artificial and empirical examples (mammals in Europe and epigean arthropods in the Azores). Results Our empirical examples show that comparing Pβ and Fβ with the most commonly used Tβ revealed previously hidden patterns of beta diversity. More importantly, we demonstrate that partitioning Pβtotal and Fβtotal into their respective βrepl and βrich components facilitates the detection of more complex patterns than using the overall coefficients alone, further elucidating the different forces operating in community assembly. Main conclusions The methods presented here allow the integration and full comparison of Tβ, Pβ and Fβ. They provide a tool for effectively disentangling the replacement (turnover) and richness difference components of the different biodiversity facets within the same methodological framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]