Multiple facets of diversity reveal different patterns and processes in aquatic arthropod communities across the world's most extreme high‐altitude treasure

Abstract

Revealing the mechanisms underlying community organization has long been a central interest for ecologists and biogeographers. Recent findings have suggested that different dimensions of biodiversity may be shaped by contrasting ecological processes, offering complementary insights about community assembly. However, studies integrating multiple diversity facets across the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau (QTP) remain insufficient. We combined multiple analytical frameworks to unravel the patterns (taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic) and correlates (local environment, land use and dispersal pathways) of aquatic arthropod diversity in lotic (stream) and lentic (wetland) ecosystems of the QTP. We observed strong phylogenetic signals in most functional traits, pointing to the influence of evolutionary processes on these faunas. Null models indicated that community structure in most streams and wetlands was mostly the result of random draws from the regional functional and phylogenetic species pool. The prevalence of stochasticity was most likely associated with the interplay of the paleogeographical history, the extremely harsh environmental conditions at high elevations and the subsequent impoverishment of the regional species pool. However, some streams and wetlands also exhibited phylogenetic overdispersion and functional clustering, emphasizing the potential importance of competitive exclusion and habitat filtering, respectively. Variation partitioning further revealed that both environmental filtering and dispersal limitation accounted for the spatial variation of diversity measures, with local environment overriding the effects of space and catchment land use. Overall, this study improves our understanding of community organization and diversity patterns in environmentally extreme alpine catchments, with broad implications for the conservation and management of one of the world’s most important high‐altitude treasures.