Altitude and Habitat Influence on Species Composition: A Multivariate Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31632/ijsblc.2025.v02i01.003Keywords:
Bray–Curtis Dissimilarity, Beta Diversity, Community Structure, Environmental Gradients, Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), Species CompositionAbstract
Considering the patterns of species composition and the factors influencing them which includes different type of environmental variables are very much crucial for determination of the community composition and biodiversity. In this study, we have designed and analyzed pollinating hoverfly (Insecta: Diptera: Syrphidae) species assemblages across five sampling stations using Bray–Curtis dissimilarity, hierarchical clustering, and two-dimensional Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) ordination. Here the MDS ordination analysis actually indicates towards the effect of altitude as an environmental driving force whereas by analyzing the data generated from dissimilarity heatmap and hierarchical clustering, it denotes that species diversity varies among the station to certain extent while stration 5 representing the higher diversity. Altogether, these analyses validate that both spatial variation and environmental gradients help to shape the species assemblages of any community. Moreover, this study further highlights the utility of using different dissimilarity metrics, clustering, and ordination to better analyse beta diversity and the ecological factors driving community differentiation in heterogeneous habitats.
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