The importance of biotic interactions in distribution models of wild bees depends on the type of ecological relations, spatial scale and range

Abstract

Studies have found that biotic information can play an important role in shaping the distribution of species even at large scales. However, results from species distribution models are not always consistent among studies and the underlying factors that influence the importance of biotic information to distribution models, are unclear. We studied wild bees and plants, and cleptoparasite bees and their hosts in the Netherlands to evaluate how the inclusion of their biotic interactions affects the performance of species distribution models. We assessed model performance through spatial block cross‐validation and by comparing models with interactions to models where the interacting species was randomized. Finally, we evaluated how, 1) spatial resolution, 2) taxonomic rank (genus or species), 3) degree of specialization, 4) distribution of the biotic factor, 5) bee body size and 6) type of biotic interaction, affect the importance of biotic interactions in shaping the distribution of wild bee species using generalized linear models (GLMs). We found that the models of wild bees improved when the biotic factor was included. The model performance improved the most for parasitic bees. Spatial resolution, taxonomic rank, distribution range of the biotic factor and degree of specialization of the modelled species all influenced the importance of the biotic interaction to the models. We encourage researchers to include biotic interactions in species distribution models, especially for specialized species and when the biotic factor has a limited distribution range. However, before adding the biotic factor we suggest considering different spatial resolutions and taxonomic ranks of the biotic factor. We recommend using single species or genus data as a biotic factor in the models of specialist species and for the generalist species, we recommend using an approximate measure of interactions, such as flower richness.