English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Species richness exhibits well-known patterns across elevational gradients in various taxa, but represents only one aspect of quantifying biodiversity patterns. Functional and phylogenetic diversity have received much less attention, particularly for vertebrate taxa. There is still a limited understanding of how functional, phylogenetic and taxonomic diversity change in concert across large gradients of elevation. Here, we focused on the Himalaya—representing the largest elevational gradients in the world—to investigate the patterns of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity in a bat assemblage. Combining field data on species occurrence, relative abundance, and functional traits with measures of phylogenetic diversity, we found that bat species richness and functional diversity declined at high elevation but phylogenetic diversity remained unchanged. At the lowest elevation, we observed low functional dispersion despite high species and functional richness, suggesting a niche packing mechanism. The decline in functional richness, dispersion, and divergence at the highest elevation is consistent with patterns observed due to environmental filtering. These patterns are driven by the absence of rhinolophid bats, four congeners with extreme trait values. Our data, some of the first on mammals from the Himalayan region, suggest that in bat assemblages with relatively high species diversity, phylogenetic diversity may not be a substitute to measure functional diversity.

Functional diversity of Himalayan bat communities declines at high elevation without the loss of phylogenetic diversity