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Intensive agricultural land use negatively impacts biodiversity, including arthropod predator diversity and their pest control potential. Alley‐cropping agroforestry systems (integration of tree rows into arable land) are increasingly considered an economically viable alternative for more sustainable and biodiversity‐friendly agriculture. However, their effectiveness in promoting generalist predator diversity and pest control, especially as a function of space (distance from tree rows) and time (across the growing season) remains poorly understood. We assessed how spider abundance, taxonomic and functional diversity (as proxies of pest control potential) respond to temperate alley‐cropping agroforestry systems as compared to open croplands. Additionally, we analysed whether spiders with different habitat preferences (eurytopic, forest and open‐habitat specialists) show distinct responses. Lastly, we analysed whether the influence of agroforestry changes with decreasing tree proximity and across the growing season. Tree row proximity generally benefited the abundance, as well as taxonomic and functional diversity of the overall spider communities. Alley‐cropping promoted the abundance and taxonomic diversity of forest specialists and eurytopic spiders, without negatively affecting open‐habitat specialists. The positive effect of alley cropping was strongest within tree rows and their immediate vicinity, but was still detectable at considerably farther distances. These patterns were temporally dynamic with spider abundance and taxonomic diversity being highest within tree rows in early spring and spiders spilling over to adjacent crop rows in subsequent periods. Synthesis and applications: Overall, our findings highlight that the inclusion of tree rows benefited spiders across the entirety of the 48 m crop rows, independent of crop type. Since the peak in spider abundance and taxonomic diversity in crop rows coincided with crop pest arrival, alley‐cropping agroforestry is expected to benefit agricultural production through increased pest control potential. Alley‐cropping agroforestry may therefore be an important management strategy to develop more sustainable agricultural systems benefiting farmers and biodiversity alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spatial variation in species distribution and community structure is at the core of community ecology. Nevertheless, the effect of distance on metacommunity structure remains little studied. We examine how plant‐pollinator community structure changes across geographical distances at a regional scale and disentangle its underlying local and regional processes.We use a multilayer network to represent linked plant‐pollinator communities as a metacommunity in the Canary Islands. We used modularity (i.e. the extent to which the community is partitioned into groups of densely interacting species) to quantify distance decay in structure across space. In multilayer modularity, the same species can belong to different modules in different communities, and modules can span communities. This enabled quantifying how similarity in module composition varied with distance between islands. We developed three null models, each controlling for a separate component of the multilayer network, to disentangle the role of species turnover, interaction rewiring and local factors in driving distance decay in structure.We found a pattern of distance decay in structure, indicating that islands tended to share fewer modules with increasing distance. Species turnover (but not interaction rewiring) was the primary regional process triggering distance decay in structure. Local interaction structure also played an essential role in determining the structure similarity of communities at a regional scale. Therefore, local factors that determine species interactions occurring at a local scale drive distance decay in structure at a regional scale.Our work highlights the interplay between local and regional processes underlying community structure. The methodology, and specifically the null models, we developed provides a general framework for linking communities in space and testing different hypotheses regarding the factors generating spatial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores cognitive place associations; conceptualised as a place‐based mental model that derives subconscious links between geographic locations. Utilising a large corpus of online discussion data from the social media website Reddit, we experiment on the extraction of such geographic knowledge from unstructured text. First we construct a system to identify place names found in Reddit comments, disambiguating each to a set of coordinates where possible. Following this, we build a collective picture of cognitive place associations in the United Kingdom, linking locations that co‐occur in user comments and evaluating the effect of distance on the strength of these associations. Exploring these geographies nationally, associations were shown to be typically weaker over greater distances. This distance decay is also highly regional, rural areas typically have greater levels of distance decay, particularly in Wales and Scotland. When comparing major cities across the UK, we observe distinct distance decay patterns, influenced primarily by proximity to other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distance decay of urban park visitation (e.g., visitation number and visitation frequency) has been widely acknowledged and is increasingly integrated into urban park planning and management considering spatial accessibility and service equity. However, thorough understandings especially concerning the variations among visitors with different personal characteristics and visitation patterns are still scarce. Taking Changsha, China as an example, we collected data on visitation distance (i.e., the distance between urban parks and visitor's homes) and visitation frequency of 2535 urban park visitors, modeled the distance decay of visitation density and visitation frequency, and investigated their variations among visitors with different personal characteristics and visitation patterns. The results show that: (1) The median visitation distance was 1.3 km and the median visitation frequency was 24 times per season. (2) Both visitation density and visitation frequency showed clear spatial patterns of distance decay and can be effectively modeled using common distance decay functions (e.g., power function, exponential function, and logarithmic function). (3) Visitors' characteristics (e.g., gender and age) and visitation patterns (e.g., duration time, transportation modes, and visitation purposes) significantly impact visitation distance, visitation frequency, and the characteristics of distance decay (i.e., the rate of distance decay). These findings extend our understanding of the distance decay of urban park visitation which can help better urban park planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a relationship between the formality of police stop outcomes (e.g., no action v. citation) for stops involving individuals experiencing homelessness and the distance of the stop to service providers. We combine several datasets from the city of San Diego to assess our research question, including: police administrative data from the California Department of Justice, location datasets of food banks, homeless shelters, emergency medical and behavior facilities, and detox centers. Using logistic regressions, we model two outcomes – formality of a stop outcome and noncriminal transportation – with distance to within-city service providers and stop characteristics. We find that as proximity to detox facilities and food banks increases, the likelihood of formal outcomes also increases. Yet, when stops occur farther from emergency housing resources there is a reduction in the likelihood of formal outcomes. As the proximity from food banks increases there is also an increase in the likelihood of noncriminal/caretaking transport. Increasing police accessibility to service providers may reduce the use of formal justice-system outcomes in police encounters with individuals experiencing homelessness, which may also reduce the unintended consequences of entering the justice system for individuals experiencing homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research compared geographic profiling (GP) methods, including spatial distribution strategies (SDS) and probability distance strategies (PDS), to account for the effect of the number of crimes on the accuracy of GP. Comparing the accuracy of GP methods among three burglar groups (a total of 333 offenders) with different sizes of crimes (1–5, 6–15 and 16 or more) committed before arrest showed that the accuracy decreased in a group with a larger size of crime. Comparing the accuracy of GP methods among the number of crimes (3–10) using 150 offenders who committed 10 or more crimes showed a slight improvement in the accuracy with the increasing number of crimes. In addition, the PDS (vs. SDS) showed a higher accuracy with the increasing number of crimes. The findings encourage practitioners to use the PDS and research implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green spaces play a vital role in improving the quality of life and well-being of urban residents. However, their economic benefits in different spatial contexts within highly urbanized areas remain a critical yet understudied topic. This study delves into the economic value of urban green spaces in Cheongju City, Republic of Korea, and investigates the distance-decay features associated with the proximity of green spaces to residential properties. Two spatial econometric models were employed to address these questions: the spatially autoregressive (SAR) model and the generalized additive model (GAM). The SAR model was used to assess the economic benefits of urban green spaces, whereas the distance decay of these benefits was examined with the GAM. Empirical analyses revealed that small-sized parks or forests under 20 ha hold greater economic value when in proximity to residential areas compared to medium-sized parks or forests between 20 and 200 ha. Conversely, large parks or forests over 200 ha appeared to have a disamenity effect, negatively impacting property prices when in close proximity. The GAM's smooth functions illustrated that the distance-decay effect was shorter for small-sized green spaces and exhibited an inverted U-shape for large-sized ones, resulting in a negative benefit of proximity. Our findings suggest that urban green spaces have a positive impact on property prices, but this effect may not apply uniformly to large-sized parks or forests. Therefore, to enhance the residents' welfare, green infrastructure policies should prioritize the provision of accessible small- and/or medium-sized parks or forests near residential areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper quantifies and graphically illustrates the distance decay effect and spatial reach of spillover effects derived from a spatial Durbin (SD) model with parameterized spatial weight matrices. Building on attributes of the concept of spatial autocorrelation developed by Arthur Getis, we adopt a distance-based negative exponential spatial weight matrix and parameterize it by a decay parameter that is different for each spatial lag in this model, both of the regressand and of all regressors. The quantification and illustration are applied to the spatially augmented neoclassical growth framework, which we estimate using data for 266 NUTS-2 regions in the EU over the period 2000–2018. We find distance decay parameters ranging from 0.233 to 2.224 and spatial reaches ranging from 700 to more than 1500 km for the different growth determinants in this model. These wide ranges highlight the restrictiveness of the conventional SD model based on one common spatial weight matrix for all spatial lags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial attribute of willingness to pay is one of the main factors affecting the valuation validity of environmental goods, and ignoring the consideration of spatial distance may lead to bias in the monetary valuation of the resource environmental goods or services. This paper takes the Enteromorpha prolifera in Qingdao sea area as the research object, uses the contingent valuation method, constructs the willingness-to-pay function model, measures the distance of respondents from Qingdao city seashore, and explores whether there is a distance decay phenomenon in the willingness to pay for Enteromorpha prolifera management; this paper measures the public willingness to pay for Enteromorpha prolifera management in different distance zones by dividing them into different distance zones, and aggregates them to obtain the total economic value of Enteromorpha prolifera management. The results show that: the willingness to pay for the management of Enteromorpha prolifera is obviously distance decay, and the public closer to the seashore tends to pay higher; the total economic value of Enteromorpha prolifera management in Qingdao is 984 million yuan/year; disregarding thedistance decay effect will eventually lead to an overestimation of the economic value of Enteromorpha prolifera management by up to 27.03%. The findings of the study can provide new research ideas and scientific references for non-market value assessment at the spatial scale, which not only improves the validity of the valuation results of the contingent valuation method, but also provides a more accurate economic value of Enteromorpha prolifera management in Qingdao.

Urbanization‐driven biotic homogenization has been recorded in various ecosystems on local and global scales; however, it is largely unexplored in developing countries. Empirical studies on different taxa and bioregions show conflicting results (i.e. biotic homogenization vs. biotic differentiation); the extent to which the community composition changes in response to anthropogenic disturbances and the factors governing this process, therefore, require elucidation. Here, we used a compiled database of 760 bird species in China to quantify the multiple‐site β‐diversity and fitted distance decay in pairwise β‐diversities between natural and urban assemblages to assess whether urbanization had driven biotic homogenization. We used generalized dissimilarity models (GDM) to elucidate the roles of spatial and environmental factors in avian community dissimilarities before and after urbanization. The multiple‐site β‐diversities among urban assemblages were markedly lower than those among natural assemblages, and the distance decays in pairwise similarities in natural assemblages were more rapid. These results were consistent among taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional aspects, supporting a general biotic homogenization driven by urbanization. The GDM results indicated that geographical distance and temperature were the dominant predictors of avian community dissimilarity. However, the contribution of geographical distance and climatic factors decreased in explaining compositional dissimilarities in urban assemblages. Geographical and environmental distances accounted for much lower variations in compositional dissimilarities in urban than in natural assemblages, implying a potential risk of uncertainty in model predictions under further climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. Our study concludes that taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions elucidate urbanization‐driven biotic homogenization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The developed prototype is a tool to evaluate a supply situation and to plan required infrastructures more efficiently and precisely. It is part of a proposal for an integrated planning tool that covers several areas of supply planning. Dynamic processes in society and demographics require a rapid response and adaptation of the existing public service infrastructure. Responsible planners must be able to analyse the situation, identify gaps in provision and derive decisions. The paper presents a web application that supports finding answers to various questions and planning decisions in the context of public service infrastructures (e.g., schools, pharmacies, supermarkets). Due to the high complexity, the combination of multi-criteria decision analysis and geographical information systems, especially in the web context, is still rarely implemented. With this spatial decision support system, we are pursuing an approach that makes multi-criteria analyses with spatially explicit methods available to the planning domain. By using this application, the user can select and adjust input parameters independently and thus strongly influence the analysis process and results—without a deep knowledge of decision-making methods or software skills. With such a centrally provided online multi-criteria spatial decision support system, the transparency and the quality of the analysis increase, while the workload for the planners is reduced, since they no longer have to spend time on preliminary data search and integration or on building complex methods and models themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural pest and weed regulation are essential for agricultural production, but the spatial distribution of natural enemies within crop fields and its drivers are mostly unknown. Using 28 datasets comprising 1204 study sites across eight Western and Central European countries, we performed a quantitative synthesis of carabid richness, activity densities and functional traits in relation to field edges (i.e. distance functions). We show that distance functions of carabids strongly depend on carabid functional traits, crop type and, to a lesser extent, adjacent non-crop habitats. Richness of both carnivores and granivores, and activity densities of small and granivorous species decreased towards field interiors, whereas the densities of large species increased. We found strong distance decays in maize and vegetables whereas richness and densities remained more stable in cereals, oilseed crops and legumes. We conclude that carabid assemblages in agricultural landscapes are driven by the complex interplay of crop types, adjacent non-crop habitats and further landscape parameters with great potential for targeted agroecological management. In particular, our synthesis indicates that a higher edge–interior ratio can counter the distance decay of carabid richness per field and thus likely benefits natural pest and weed regulation, hence contributing to agricultural sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: How community composition varies in space and what governs the variation has been extensively investigated in macroorganisms. However, we have only limited knowledge of microorganisms, especially fungi, despite their ecological and economic significance. Based on previous research, we define and test a series of hypotheses regarding the composition of fungal communities, their most influential drivers and their spatial scale dependence. Location: Czech Republic. Time period: Present. Taxa studied: Fungi. Methods: We analysed the distance decay relationships, community composition and its drivers (physical distance, litter and soil chemistry, tree composition and climate) in fungi using multivariate analyses. We compared the results across three fungal ecological guilds (ectomycorrhizal fungi, saprotrophs and yeasts), two forest microhabitats (litter and bulk soil) and six spatial scales (from 5 m to 80 km) that comprehensively cover the Czech Republic. Results: We found that, similar to macroorganisms, the ectomycorrhizal fungi and saprotrophs showed marked distance–decay relationships, and their community composition was driven mainly by vegetation and dispersal at local scales but, at regional scales, by environmental effects. In contrast, the third fungal guild, the unicellular yeasts, showed little distance decay, suggesting extraordinary spatial homogeneity, as often seen in microorganisms, such as bacteria. Main conclusions: Our results underscore the remarkable variation in the community ecology of fungi, which seems to range well‐known patterns both from the macro‐ and the microworld. Knowledge of these patterns advances our understanding of the ecology of fungi, rather understudied organisms of significant ecological and economic importance, which our findings identify as a potentially suitable model for bridging the gaps between the biogeography of micro‐ and macroorganisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Contrasting patterns of host and microbiome biogeography can provide insight into the drivers of microbial community assembly. Distance–decay relationships are a classic biogeographical pattern shaped by interactions between selective and non-selective processes. Joint biogeography of microbiomes and their hosts is of increasing interest owing to the potential for microbiome-facilitated adaptation. Methods In this study, we examine the coupled biogeography of the model macroalga Durvillaea and its microbiome using a combination of genotyping by sequencing (host) and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing (microbiome). Alongside these approaches, we use environmental data to characterize the relationship between the microbiome, the host, and the environment. Key Results We show that although the host and microbiome exhibit shared biogeographical structure, these arise from different processes, with host biogeography showing classic signs of geographical distance decay, but with the microbiome showing environmental distance decay. Examination of microbial subcommunities, defined by abundance, revealed that the abundance of microbes is linked to environmental selection. As microbes become less common, the dominant ecological processes shift away from selective processes and towards neutral processes. Contrary to expectations, we found that ecological drift does not promote structuring of the microbiome. Conclusions Our results suggest that although host macroalgae exhibit a relatively 'typical' biogeographical pattern of declining similarity with increasing geographical distance, the microbiome is more variable and is shaped primarily by environmental conditions. Our findings suggest that the Baas Becking hypothesis of 'everything is everywhere, the environment selects' might be a useful hypothesis to understand the biogeography of macroalgal microbiomes. As environmental conditions change in response to anthropogenic influences, the processes structuring the microbiome of macroalgae might shift, whereas those governing the host biogeography are less likely to change. As a result, increasingly decoupled host–microbe biogeography might be observed in response to such human influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure sports, which aim to improve people’s health and quality of life, have vigorously developed with the continuous enrichment of social material wealth and the enhancement of people’s spiritual life needs. This paper uses multidimensional data analysis to measure the spatial vitality of urban residents’ leisure sports activities. We use distance decay and circle of life behavior theory to explain the behavioral basis of residents’ willingness to participate in leisure sports activities. We introduce a geographically weighted regression model, a geographic detector, a kernel density analysis method, and an accessibility index to study the specific characteristics of residents’ leisure sports activities, including spatial and temporal characteristics, leisure activity distribution, agglomeration characteristics, and preference selection. The research reveals distinct features in the spatial vitality of leisure and sports in Nanjing; the central urban area serves as the hotspot for activity intensity, and a discrepancy exists between the availability of sports and leisure resources and the overall spatial vitality. The average score for the spatial coordination of sports activities is 0.4928, with most communities falling below the medium threshold. The average reachable distance of residents’ sports activity space is 1732 m, significantly higher than the standard range of living circles (500~1500 m). Therefore, this paper proposes strategies for improving participation in urban leisure sports activities from five aspects: developing diversified activity contents, stimulating residents’ enthusiasm for leisure sports, media publicity and guidance, creating a good leisure sports consumption environment, and improving residents’ leisure sports space accessibility.

This paper reviews the literature on distance decay in urban and rural tourism. Through a systematic literature review, this paper aims to understand the current state of knowledge regarding distance decay in tourism including (1) reveal the main topics and domains, (2) variables applied in past studies, while simultaneously distinguishing them in the form of urban and rural tourism as well as (3) identify potential areas and gaps for future studies. The findings indicate a growing interest among tourism researchers to examine distance decay, with studies predominantly focusing more on urban tourism than rural tourism. Additionally, this review recommends future studies to investigate distance decay in crisis and disaster management for future study regardless of urban or rural tourism settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A seismic sequence has struck the Yangbi county, west part of Yunnan Province in southwest China since May 18, 2021. This region experienced the strongest ground shakings on the night of 21 May with the successive occurrence of four earthquakes with MS ≥5.0 in a short time and more small earthquakes. Large numbers of strong-motion recordings obtained in the four earthquakes with MS ≥5.0 (i.e. the MS 5.6 foreshock, the MS 6.4 mainshock, the MS 5.0 and MS 5.2 aftershocks) were analyzed in detail to characterize the source effects, distance decay, etc. The velocity pulse-like waveform at near-source station 53YBX and the significant asymmetry of distance decay along the SSE-NNW direction (i.e. much slower toward the SSE) in the MS 6.4 mainshock seem to hint the occurrence of the asymmetrical source rupture. The source rupture directivity for the four events were investigated by fitting the azimuth-dependent residuals of the PGAs. The MS 6.4 mainshock is characterized by the significantly asymmetrical bilateral rupture propagation, predominantly in the SSE direction with a rupture velocity of about 2.24 km/s. The PGA and PSAs from the four earthquakes were further compared with the predicted medians of the ASK14 and CY14 prediction models for global shallow crustal earthquakes. The negative inter-events residuals reflect the weaker source contributions of the Yangbi events to ground motions. The source contributions to short-period ground motions approximately show the dependence on earthquake type, that is, MS 5.6 foreshock > MS 6.4 mainshock > MS 5.2 aftershock, consistent with the dependence of stress drop on earthquake type. We further noted that the inter-events values for the MS 5.0 aftershock are far below those for the MS 5.2 aftershock. This may be attributed to the differences in the spatial and temporal distance to the mainshock, that is, weak source contributions from the close aftershocks to the mainshock. The values of adjustment coefficient Δc3 are almost positive, indicating the weaker anelastic attenuations in the study region. Finally, we also found that the distance scaling of significant duration can be well described by both empirical models (AS16 model for predicting significant duration and the BT14 model for empirically illustrating the ground-motion path duration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green spaces play a vital role in improving the quality of life and well-being of urban residents. However, their economic benefits in different spatial contexts within highly urbanized areas remain a critical yet understudied topic. This study delves into the economic value of urban green spaces in Cheongju City, Republic of Korea, and investigates the distance-decay features associated with the proximity of green spaces to residential properties. Two spatial econometric models were employed to address these questions: the spatially autoregressive (SAR) model and the generalized additive model (GAM). The SAR model was used to assess the economic benefits of urban green spaces, whereas the distance decay of these benefits was examined with the GAM. Empirical analyses revealed that small-sized parks or forests under 20 ha hold greater economic value when in proximity to residential areas compared to medium-sized parks or forests between 20 and 200 ha. Conversely, large parks or forests over 200 ha appeared to have a disamenity effect, negatively impacting property prices when in close proximity. The GAM’s smooth functions illustrated that the distance-decay effect was shorter for small-sized green spaces and exhibited an inverted U-shape for large-sized ones, resulting in a negative benefit of proximity. Our findings suggest that urban green spaces have a positive impact on property prices, but this effect may not apply uniformly to large-sized parks or forests. Therefore, to enhance the residents’ welfare, green infrastructure policies should prioritize the provision of accessible small- and/or medium-sized parks or forests near residential areas.

Although land use change is the main driver of biodiversity decline in the South American temperate grasslands, its impacts on β‐diversity have not yet been evaluated. We investigated relationships between β‐diversity, landscape features, and geographical variables by surveying vegetation from 163 plots distributed in eight different land use types in Uruguay. We created land use maps using Landsat images and calculated landscape metrics, determining β‐diversity across all plots and exploring variation of β‐diversity among different land use types. We ran distance decay models to explore relationships between β‐diversity and geographical location, climate, and landscape metrics. Plant species communities were characterized by a high turnover and low nestedness of species, indicating high dissimilarity across Uruguay. Native forest showed higher β‐diversity than grassland, timber plantation, and crops. β‐diversity increased with geographical distance and environmental dissimilarity. At landscape scale, turnover decreased negatively and nestedness increased to contagion, number of patches, and area‐weighted mean. Nestedness increased with timber plantation and species turnover with crop area. Higher Landscape Shape Index of grassland and crops decreased species turnover. An increase of grassland and crop patches in the surrounding landscape was directly related to a higher species turnover. The high β‐diversity across Uruguay resulting from land use change, moderated by landscape configurations, suggests that numerous protected areas for different habitats are urgently required. A more inclusive vision on biodiversity conservation is necessary, extending the predominant focus from native forests to grasslands, and convincing a broad range of stakeholders, especially landowners and managers, about biodiversity‐friendly land‐use approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial assemblages on the skins of amphibians are known to influence pathogen resistance and other important physiological functions in the host. Host-specific factors and the environment play significant roles in structuring skin assemblages. This study used high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing and multivariate analyses to examine differences in skin-bacterial assemblages from 246 salamanders belonging to three genera in the lungless family Plethodontidae along multiple spatial gradients. Composition and α- and β-diversity of bacterial assemblages were defined, indicator species were identified for each host group, and the relative influences of host- versus environment-specific ecological factors were evaluated. At the broadest spatial scale, host genus, host species, and sampling site were predictive of skin assemblage structure, but host genus and species were more influential after controlling for the marginal effects of site, as well as nestedness of site. Furthermore, assemblage similarity within each host genus did not change with increasing geographic distance. At the smallest spatial scale, site-specific climate analyses revealed different relationships to climatic variables for each of the three genera, and these relationships were determined by host ecomode. Variation in bacterial assemblages of terrestrial hosts correlated with landscape-level climatic variability, and this pattern decayed with increasing water dependence of the host. Results from this study highlight host-specific considerations for researchers studying wildlife diseases in co-occurring, yet ecologically divergent, species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how microbial communities are shaped across spatial dimensions is of fundamental importance in microbial ecology. However, most studies on soil biogeography have focused on the topsoil microbiome, while the factors driving the subsoil microbiome distribution are largely unknown. Here we used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to analyse the factors underlying the bacterial β‐diversity along vertical (0–240 cm of soil depth) and horizontal spatial dimensions (~500,000 km2) in the U.S. Corn Belt. With these data we tested whether the horizontal or vertical spatial variation had stronger impacts on the taxonomic (Bray‐Curtis) and phylogenetic (weighted Unifrac) β‐diversity. Additionally, we assessed whether the distance‐decay (horizontal dimension) was greater in the topsoil (0–30 cm) or subsoil (in each 30 cm layer from 30–240 cm) using Mantel tests. The influence of geographic distance versus edaphic variables on the bacterial communities from the different soil layers was also compared. Results indicated that the phylogenetic β‐diversity was impacted more by soil depth, while the taxonomic β‐diversity changed more between geographic locations. The distance‐decay was lower in the topsoil than in all subsoil layers analysed. Moreover, some subsoil layers were influenced more by geographic distance than any edaphic variable, including pH. Although different factors affected the topsoil and subsoil biogeography, niche‐based models explained the community assembly of all soil layers. This comprehensive study contributed to elucidating important aspects of soil bacterial biogeography including the major impact of soil depth on the phylogenetic β‐diversity, and the greater influence of geographic distance on subsoil than on topsoil bacterial communities in agroecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: More similar locations may have similar infectious disease dynamics. There is clear overlap in putative causes for epidemic similarity, such as geographic distance, age structure, and population size. We compare the effects of these potential drivers on epidemic similarity compared to a baseline assumption that differences in the basic reproductive number (R0) will translate to differences in epidemic trajectories. Methods: Using COVID-19 case counts from United States counties, we explore the importance of geographic distance, population size differences, and age structure dissimilarity on resulting epidemic similarity. Results: We find clear effects of geographic space, age structure, population size, and R0 on epidemic similarity, but notably the effect of age structure was stronger than the baseline assumption that differences in R0 would be most related to epidemic similarity. Conclusions: Together, this highlights the role of spatial and demographic processes on SARS-CoV2 epidemics in the United States.

Aim: Understanding the mechanisms underlying the structure and connectivity of ecological communities is a central issue in biogeography. Dispersal syndromes are tightly woven into organisms' life history seen across populations and communities, but measuring dispersal is still complicated in practice. We investigated the role of dispersal syndromes (here, associated with body size, adult flying ability and voltinism) to predict phylogenetic distance decay relationships (DDRs) of aquatic insect assemblages in dendritic stream networks. Location: Du River Basin, China. Taxon: Aquatic insects (Coleoptera, Diptera, Ephemeroptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Megaloptera, Odonata, Plecoptera and Trichoptera). Methods: We applied multiple methods (i.e. deconstruction approach, null models, Mantel tests and partial Mantel tests) to enhance our basic understanding of phylogenetic distance decay patterns. To provide additional insights into correlates of phylogenetic dissimilarity between stream sites, we modelled potential dispersal routes based on overland, watercourse and cost distances. Results: Overland distances were among the main correlates of phylogenetic distance decay in the stream networks studied, suggesting that aquatic insects disperse overland seeking for habitats suitable for survival and reproduction. However, local environmental filtering was generally more important for phylogenetic DDRs than geographical distances alone. The interaction between environmental vs. dispersal processes in driving spatial patterns of phylogenetic dissimilarity was contingent on different dispersal syndromes. More specifically, significant phylogenetic DDRs were detected only for subsets of large‐bodied, univoltine taxa with strong adult flying abilities, such as dragonflies. Main Conclusions: Overall, historical constraints affect the phylogenetic DDRs in aquatic insects. Dispersal syndromes associated with body size, adult flying ability and voltinism are key features underlying distance decay in phylogenetic assemblage similarity and the evolutionary legacies of aquatic insects in dendritic stream networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: One of the oldest and most powerful ways for ecologists to explain distinct biological communities is to invoke underlying environmental differences. But in hyper‐diverse systems, which often display high species richness and low species abundance, these sorts of community comparisons are especially challenging. The classic view for Amazonian birds posits that riverine barriers and habitat specialization determine local and regional community composition. We test the tacit, complementary assumption that similar bird communities should therefore permeate uniform habitat between major rivers, regardless of distance. Location: Upland (terra firme) rainforests of central Amazonia. Methods: We conducted intensive whole‐community surveys of birds in three pairs of 100‐ha plots, separated by 40–60 km. We then used dissimilarity indices, cluster analysis, and ordination to characterize differences among the six avian communities. Results: In all, we detected 244 forest‐dependent birds, with an average of 190 species (78%) per plot. Species turnover was negligible, no unique indicator species were found among plot pairs, and all documented species were already known from a complete inventory at one of the three sites. Main Conclusions: Our study corroborates the classic biogeographical pattern and suggests that turnover contributes little to regional avian diversity within upland forests. Using a grain size of 100 ha, this implies that upland birds perceive the environment as uniform, at least over distances of ~60 km. Therefore, to maximize both local species richness and population persistence, our findings support the conservation of very large tracts of upland rainforest. Our analyses also revealed that the avifauna at Reserva Ducke, encroached by urban sprawl from the city of Manaus, shows the hallmarks of a disturbed community, with fewer vulnerable insectivores. This defaunation signals that even an enormous preserve (10 × 10 km) in lowland Amazonia is not insulated from anthropogenic degradation within the surrounding landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of understanding people's preferences and the well-being of river systems cannot be overstated when it comes to the effective restoration and long-term management of these systems. This study aimed to determine the preferences of people in the Hei River Basin of China regarding the conservation, restoration, and development of ecological systems and their associated services. The research utilized a combination of random parameter logit models for distance decay. The study collected data using a choice experiment method and separated the study area into three distance-based groups: group I (within 25 km), group II (25 to 50 km), and group III (beyond 50 km). The findings showed that there was spatial heterogeneity among the people, with a higher willingness to pay for high-quality agricultural production and the lowest willingness to pay for oasis. The results revealed a complex pattern of spatial heterogeneity and indicated the need for increased awareness programs, environmental education, and the promotion of social responsibility towards environmental protection. It is essential to implement environmental policies, restore properties, and preserve ecological systems to achieve sustainable development and a sustainable environment. The findings highlight the importance of considering spatial heterogeneity and the need for increased environmental awareness, education, and policy implementation. This research can contribute to developing effective strategies for the preservation of river systems and ensuring sustainable development and a sustainable environment.

Dynamic processes in society and demographics require a rapid response and adaptation of the existing public service infrastructure. Responsible planners must be able to analyse the situation, identify gaps in provision and derive decisions. The paper presents a web application that supports finding answers to various questions and planning decisions in the context of public service infrastructures (e.g., schools, pharmacies, supermarkets). Due to the high complexity, the combination of multi-criteria decision analysis and geographical information systems, especially in the web context, is still rarely implemented. With this spatial decision support system, we are pursuing an approach that makes multi-criteria analyses with spatially explicit methods available to the planning domain. By using this application, the user can select and adjust input parameters independently and thus strongly influence the analysis process and results—without a deep knowledge of decision-making methods or software skills. With such a centrally provided online multi-criteria spatial decision support system, the transparency and the quality of the analysis increase, while the workload for the planners is reduced, since they no longer have to spend time on preliminary data search and integration or on building complex methods and models themselves.

Ecological predictions are necessary for testing whether processes hypothesized to regulate species population dynamics are generalizable across time and space. In order to demonstrate generalizability, model predictions should be transferable in one or more dimensions, where transferability is the successful prediction of responses outside of the model data bounds. While much is known as to what makes spatially-oriented models transferable, there is no general consensus as to the spatio-temporal transferability of ecological time series models. Here, we examine whether the intrinsic predictability of a time series, as measured by its complexity, could limit such transferability using an exceptional long-term dataset of Adélie penguin breeding abundance time series collected at 24 colonies around Antarctica. For each colony, we select a suite of environmental variables from the Community Earth System Model, version 2 to predict population growth rates, before assessing how well these environmentally-dependent population models transfer temporally and how reliably temporal signals replicate through space. We show that weighted permutation entropy (WPE), a model-free measure of intrinsic predictability recently introduced to ecology, varies spatially across Adélie penguin populations, perhaps in response to stochastic environmental events. We demonstrate that WPE can strongly limit temporal predictive performance, although this relationship could be weakened if intrinsic predictability is not constant over time. Lastly, we show that WPE can also limit spatial forecast horizon, which we define as the decay in spatial predictive performance with respect to the physical distance between focal colony and predicted colony. Irrespective of intrinsic predictability, spatial forecast horizons for all Adélie penguin breeding colonies included in this study are surprisingly short and our population models often have similar temporal and spatial predictive performance compared to null models based on long-term average growth rates. For cases where time series are complex, as measured by WPE, and the transferability of biologically-motivated mechanistic models are poor, we advise that null models should instead be used for prediction. These models are likely better at capturing more generalizable relationships between average growth rates and long-term environmental conditions. Lastly, we recommend that WPE can provide valuable insights when evaluating model performance, designing sampling or monitoring programs, or assessing the appropriateness of preexisting datasets for making conservation management decisions in response to environmental change.

This paper presents a longitudinal study of domestic travel by residents of Southeast Queensland, Australia. It is framed within the distance decay concept. Two major findings emerged from the study. First, people who were most likely to forsake travel as a result of COVID-19 generally did not value it very highly, while those who continued to travel saw it as an important part of their lifestyles. Second, applying the distance decay concept revealed no change in destination choice in intra-destination movements over time, although the volume of tourists was substantially lower as a result of COVID-19. This findings suggests a degree of habit persistence prevails even in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial policy based on Smart Specialisation emphasizes the exploitation of industrial linkages based on technological rather than intermediate product linkages. This paper develops microlevel analysis using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) patent citation database on the intensity of technical relatedness depending on the cited and citing technological fields. The results are used to estimate the patterns of interregional knowledge spillovers in the European Union and explain spatial differences in patent growth. The approach to identifying spillovers provides an improved toolbox to guide implementation of Smart Specialisation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal amenities are public goods that represent an important attraction for tourism activities. This paper studies the capitalization effects of beach characteristics using hedonic pricing methods. We examine the implicit economic value of several beach characteristics like sand type, width, longitude, accessibility, or frontage in the Airbnb rental market. Using data for 16,663 Airbnb listings located in 67 municipalities of the Balearic Islands (Spain) during the summer of 2016, together with detailed information about the attributes of 263 beaches, our modelling approach considers interaction terms between the beach amenities and distance to the closest beach. Controlling for a set of listings' structural characteristics, host attributes and municipality fixed effects, we find that Airbnb guests attach economic value to beach length, the presence of vegetation, the type of coastal frontage and beach accessibility and exclusivity. However, there is no evidence of capitalization effects associated with beach width or the type of sand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NO₂-concentration was measured at 17 sites around 11 preschools for one year. • Preschool location significantly influences children's air pollution exposure. • Small differences in location within neighbourhood increased exposure up to 25 %. • Intra-neighbourhood exposure differences were estimated to affect children's health. • Preschool placement in neighbourhood should be prioritized in urban planning. Air pollution exposure is a major health concern globally. Children are especially vulnerable as their lungs and organs are still maturing and it is important to minimize children's exposure to air pollution. In this study we analyse one year of measurements of monthly average Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations, in 17 sites around 11 preschools, to assess the influence of the preschool yard location on air quality. The urban background levels greatly affected concentrations at the preschool yards, with up to 50 % higher NO₂ concentrations in exposed central neighbourhoods compared to suburban. However, the specific placement of the preschool yard within the neighbourhood could also markedly reduce the pollution concentrations. A more exposed preschool suffered between 11 and 24 % higher concentrations compared to a nearby, more protected, preschool in the same neighbourhood. Differences of the same magnitude were also connected to the presence of barriers blocking the flow of polluted air from the source to the yard. The health implications of exposure differences were estimated to be small for each child but not negligible on a population level. Careful placement of preschool yards, especially in high-risk neighbourhoods, can improve air quality and provide a healthier environment for our children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distance holds significant importance in the decision-making processes of migration flows. Previous studies have predominantly adopted a global perspective to understand distance constraints. However, same spatial heterogeneity exists in distance constraints, and this heterogeneity contributes to understanding of the effect of regional characteristics in human migration. This study answers three questions: Does distance work for all counties in the same way? Why distance works for some counties but does not for others? And what makes distance decay differently among counties? We adopt geographically weighted regression, binary logistics regression, and random forest regression to analyze the migration from counties all over the China to Shenzhen to explore the spatial heterogeneity of distance decay. The results show that distance does not always work, and that demographics and transportation facilities are important determinants of whether distance works. For counties where distance works, distance decay is nonlinearly related to regional development. This non-linear relationship is due to the game between the appeal of intervention opportunities in the nearest new first-tier city, the constraints represented by the socio-economic development of the source county, and the attractiveness of Shenzhen. This further reflects the dynamic interplay between costs and opportunities, give and gain in the decision process of migration. • Proposing that distance doesn't always work: It does not work in the western part and some well-developed counties. • The demographics and transportation facilities of counties play an important role in whether distance works or not. • Revealing migration does not decay linearly with distance, but rather is characterized by a non-linear. • The nonlinear effect of distance decay as a game of intervening opportunity, county development, and Shenzhen attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: More similar locations may have similar infectious disease dynamics. There is clear overlap in putative causes for epidemic similarity, such as geographic distance, age structure, and population size. We compare the effects of these potential drivers on epidemic similarity compared to a baseline assumption that differences in the basic reproductive number (R0) will translate to differences in epidemic trajectories. Methods: Using COVID-19 case counts from United States counties, we explore the importance of geographic distance, population size differences, and age structure dissimilarity on resulting epidemic similarity. Results: We find clear effects of geographic space, age structure, population size, and R0 on epidemic similarity, but notably the effect of age structure was stronger than the baseline assumption that differences in R0 would be most related to epidemic similarity. Conclusions: Together, this highlights the role of spatial and demographic processes on SARS-CoV2 epidemics in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at a contextualization and conceptualization for the spatial extent of social communications, coupled with a presentation of the cumulative evidence in this regard. The contextualization of the spatial extent of social ties is anchored within the pre-commercial Internet kind of tyranny of space, as well as within contemporary interpretations of Internet-related distance and space/location. Before the introduction of the commercial Internet, the maximal possible distance for individual travel and communications dominated social-spatial interactions, thus limiting social ties mainly to the local sphere. This domination of distance has been replaced by an optionality of distance, made available through Internet communications, facilitating people's choice for the preferred spatial extent of their social communications. The emergence of space optionality has revealed, through studies of numerous Internet communications platforms, a prevailing human preference for proximity in virtual communications, or a minimization of the distances separating between communicating parties. Thus, a priority for local virtual, as well as for face-to-face, communications, still dominates the spatial patterns of social interaction, which is true for other spatial outreaches by individuals, such as for shopping and financial investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the previous studies on the impact of risk perception on travel intention are based on an individual psychological perspective, and the understanding based on the perspective of macropsychology is insufficient. Analyzing the temporal and spatial characteristics of risk perception theory at the macropsychological and regional levels will expand the scope of risk perception theory, which may help to promote the orderly recovery of tourism activities under the normalization of epidemics at the regional level. This study uses Baidu big data, through a panel VAR analysis, to explore the impact of people's epidemic risk perception on travelers intentions from a macropsychological level and to analyze the temporal and spatial differences of this impact. From a temporal perspective, this study found that the early stage of epidemic risk perception had a negative impact on travel intentions, and later, a compensatory effect on travelers intentions appeared. From the perspective of risks at different threat levels, the Wuhan epidemic with a high degree of threat had a greater impact, while foreign epidemics had less impact. From the perspective of spatial differences, this study indicated that the negative impact of attention to epidemics on attention to tourism basically shows a gradual decay from the core to secondary and then to peripheral areas. This research will reveal some new findings on the impact of perceived risk on behavior intention at the temporal and spatial levels, and will have certain reference value for regional tourism restoration and marketing under the influence of epidemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the mechanisms that underlie the assembly of plant communities is critical to the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity. However, it is seldom measured or quantified how much deterministic versus stochastic processes contribute to community assembly in alpine meadows. Here, we measured the decay in community similarity with spatial and environmental distance in the Zoige Plateau. Furthermore, we used redundancy analysis (RDA) to divide the variations in the relative abundance of plant families into four components to assess the effects of environmental and spatial. Species assemblage similarity liner declined with geographical distance (p <.001, R2 =.6388), and it decreased significantly with increasing distance of total phosphorus (TP), alkali‐hydrolyzable nitrogen (AN), available potassium (AK), nitrate nitrogen (NO3+–N), and ammonia nitrogen (NH4+–N). Environmental and spatial variables jointly explained a large proportion (55.2%) of the variation in the relative abundance of plant families. Environmental variables accounted for 13.1% of the total variation, whereas spatial variables accounted for 11.4%, perhaps due to the pronounced abiotic gradients in the alpine areas. Our study highlights the mechanism of plant community assembly in the alpine ecosystem, where environmental filtering plays a more important role than dispersal limitation. In addition, a reasonably controlled abundance of Compositae (the family with the highest niche breadth and large niche overlap value with Gramineae and Cyperaceae) was expected to maintain sustainable development in pastoral production. These results suggest that management measures should be developed with the goal of improving or maintaining suitable local environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-known challenge to studies examining the distance of residential mobility patterns is that the estimates are often constrained to patterns only within a particular metro area or between metro areas. Thus, studies are unable to estimate the entire distance decay functional form. Using a unique data set on the distance of the most recent move for a large sample of households in twenty-three metropolitan areas in the United States over three waves, we flexibly estimate the distance decay function for the entire sample, as well as for a series of subpopulations based on key demographic information.

Abstract Identifying the mechanisms that underlie the assembly of plant communities is critical to the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity. However, it is seldom measured or quantified how much deterministic versus stochastic processes contribute to community assembly in alpine meadows. Here, we measured the decay in community similarity with spatial and environmental distance in the Zoige Plateau. Furthermore, we used redundancy analysis (RDA) to divide the variations in the relative abundance of plant families into four components to assess the effects of environmental and spatial. Species assemblage similarity liner declined with geographical distance (p

This paper explores the differences between two different types of potential accessibility models applied to the urban system of Romania, using demographic data from 2015. The first model is based on a classical formalization of the potential accessibility function, while the second one focuses on the introduction of variable parameters in the model’s equation. When mapping the results, one will found that the models we investigated respond to different needs and visions in spatial planning. The alternative formalization provides a frame for a more in-depth analysis of the transportation endowment, at regional scale, together with an assessment of the urban systems hierarchy. The study highlights the fragility of the local urban systems gravitating around small cities, placed in precarious accessibility situations. The results can be used for a better assessment of the policy priorities, both from the perspective of spatial planning and sustainable development.

Agricultural intensification and landscape simplification are among the major drivers of biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes. Increasing field edges might be a key solution for enhancing biodiversity and related ecosystem services within arable fields. In this study, we investigated the spatial distribution of nine arthropod groups and weed seed and pest predation rates across different distances from field edges and crop types. Furthermore, we tested the relationship between local carabid abundance and species richness and directly measured weed seed and pest predation rates. Most of the investigated taxa were not affected by field margin proximity, except for carabid species richness and the abundance of bees and wasps, hoverflies, and myriapods, which were high near the edge. We found a higher abundance of carabids and herbivores in oilseed rape compared to other crops, while hoverflies, bees and wasps were more abundant in cereal. True bug abundance was significantly higher in oilseed rape interiors compared to edges. Weed seed predation and pest predation by small mammals were the highest at 36 m from the field margin, probably due to small mammal distribution, while pest predation by arthropods did not show any significant pattern. Both weed seed predation rate and arthropod pest predation were positively related to carabid abundance and negatively to species richness. Contrasting responses across nine investigated arthropod taxa indicate that re-designing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity across taxa will be challenging, and further studies are needed to fully understand the spatial distribution of arthropods and related ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. • The spatial distribution of nine arthropod groups and two ecosystem services was investigated. • The abundance of bees and wasps, hoverflies, and myriapods was higher near field edges than in field interiors. • Weed seed predation and pest predation were the highest at 36 m from field edges. • The crop type had stronger effects on arthropod communities than proximity to the field edges. • Ecosystem services were positively related to carabid abundance and negatively to species richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algal reefs, concreted by crustose coralline algae (CCA), are the main biotic reefs in temperate waters but rare in the subtropics and tropics. The world's largest known intertidal algal reef in the subtropics is the Taoyuan Algal Reef (TAR) located in the northwestern coast of Taiwan. The biodiversity and ecology of the TAR are scarcely explored, and now the reef is imperiled by industrialization. Here, we document cryptic species of CCA in Taiwan, particularly the TAR, by sequencing the psbA genes of over 1800 specimens collected across Taiwan. We also examine the ecological background of the TAR by surveying its benthic composition and measuring its environmental parameters. Our data reveal that the TAR harbours a high diversity of cryptic CCA species (27 molecular operational taxonomic units, or mOTUs), many of which are potentially new to science (18 mOTUs) and/or endemic to the TAR (9 mOTUs). Comparing the CCA species inventory of the TAR with the rest of Taiwan shows that the TAR represents a unique hotspot of CCA taxa in the waters of Taiwan. Our analyses show that variation in the CCA assemblages in the TAR is associated with geographic distance, sedimentation, and substrate type (for example, reef vs. hermit crab shell), suggesting that dispersal limitation and contemporary environmental selection shape the CCA assemblages in the TAR. The data from this study can inform the monitoring of human impacts on the health of the TAR and contribute to our understanding of the ecological processes underlying algal reef development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is gaining a growing popularity among scientists but its applicability to biodiversity research and management remains limited in river systems by the lack of knowledge about the spatial extent of the downstream transport of eDNA. Here, we assessed the ability of eDNA inventories to retrieve spatial patterns of fish assemblages along two large and species‐rich Neotropical rivers. We first examined overall community variation with distance through the distance decay of similarity and compared this pattern to capture‐based samples. We then considered previous knowledge on individual species distributions, and compared it to the eDNA inventories for a set of 53 species. eDNA collected from 28 sites in the Maroni and 25 sites in the Oyapock rivers permitted to retrieve a decline of species similarity with increasing distance between sites. The distance decay of similarity derived from eDNA was similar and even more pronounced than that obtained with capture‐based methods (gill‐nets). In addition, the species upstream‐downstream distribution range derived from eDNA matched to the known distribution of most species. Our results demonstrate that environmental DNA does not represent an integrative measure of biodiversity across the whole upstream river basin but provides a relevant picture of local fish assemblages. Importantly, the spatial signal gathered from eDNA was therefore comparable to that gathered with local capture‐based methods, which describes fish fauna over a few hundred metres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of environmental difference among sites and dispersal limitations of species to the explanation of diversity differs among biological systems and geographical regions. We hypothesized that climate and then dispersal limitation will predominantly explain the similarity of alpine vegetation at increasing distances between pairs of regions at subcontinental extent. We computed the similarity of all pairs of 23 European mountain regions below 50° N after dividing the species lists of each region by calcareous or siliceous substrates. Distance decay in similarity was better fitted by a cubic polynomial than a negative exponential function, and the fit was better on calcareous than on siliceous substrate. Commonality analysis revealed that the proportion of explanation of beta diversity by climatic difference had unimodal patterns on a gradient of increasing distance between regions, while explanation by dispersal limitation had consistently rising patterns on both substrates. On siliceous substrate, dispersal limitation explained more of the variation in beta diversity only at longer distances, but it was predominant at all distances on calcareous substrate. The steeper response to distance at <1600 km and >2600 km may indicate dispersal limitation at different temporal scales, and the uptick in the response to distance at the longest distances may reflect how isolated some regions have been before and since the last glacial maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The importance of environmental difference among sites and dispersal limitations of species to the explanation of diversity differs among biological systems and geographical regions. We hypothesized that climate and then dispersal limitation will predominantly explain the similarity of alpine vegetation at increasing distances between pairs of regions at subcontinental extent. We computed the similarity of all pairs of 23 European mountain regions below 50° N after dividing the species lists of each region by calcareous or siliceous substrates. Distance decay in similarity was better fitted by a cubic polynomial than a negative exponential function, and the fit was better on calcareous than on siliceous substrate. Commonality analysis revealed that the proportion of explanation of beta diversity by climatic difference had unimodal patterns on a gradient of increasing distance between regions, while explanation by dispersal limitation had consistently rising patterns on both substrates. On siliceous substrate, dispersal limitation explained more of the variation in beta diversity only at longer distances, but it was predominant at all distances on calcareous substrate. The steeper response to distance at 2600 km may indicate dispersal limitation at different temporal scales, and the uptick in the response to distance at the longest distances may reflect how isolated some regions have been before and since the last glacial maximum.