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<p>Fine-scale realized niche characterization and habitat affinity.</p> Diego Garcia Castillo (25157692) Cell Biology Evolutionary Biology Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified Ecology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Plant Biology type vegetation density scale environmental gradients realized niche breadth interspecific niche partitioning integrating hemispherical photography excluding others according 114 colonies across strong ecological filter generalist ecological strategies ecological niche breadth principal component analysis narrower edaphic dispersion div >< p cutter ants respond alongside macroclimatic data atta laevigata </ atta cephalotes </ cutter ants laevigata </ ecological consequences cephalotes </ principal axes microclimatic data macroclimatic conditions edaphic profiles woody ecosystems wider range warmer micro use change urban areas regional transect previous reports predominantly associated neotropical leaf mound architecture microhabitat conditions generalism vs findings suggest colombian andes canopy areas anthropogenic filters <p>(A) Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of environmental and architectural niche space for <i>Atta</i> species. Points represent individual colonies of <i>A. cephalotes</i> (green; n = 56) and <i>A. laevigata</i> (orange; n = 55). Crosses (X) indicate group centroids, and shaded areas represent 95% confidence ellipses for each species. The axes (PC1 and PC2) together explained 47.9% of the total variance. Loading vectors (arrows) indicate the direction and relative magnitude of the contribution of each environmental and architectural variable to the principal components. Vector direction indicates the relationship of each variable with the principal components, whereas vector length reflects its relative contribution to the species separation. Significant multivariate differentiation between species was confirmed in realized niche space via PERMANOVA based on Euclidean distances (pseudo-<i>F</i> = 27.01, <i>df</i> = 1, 109, <i>p</i> = 0.001, 999 permutations). (B) Vegetation affinity profile based on Indicator Value (IndVal) analysis for Trees, Bushes, and Grasses. The horizontal lines (dumbbells) represent the ecological distance in habitat association between the two species, where higher IndVal scores denote stronger specificity and fidelity to a vegetation category. (C) Radar plot comparing the relative multivariate dispersion (used here as a proxy for realized niche breadth) across five architectural and environmental variables for <i>A. cephalotes</i> (green) and <i>A. laevigata</i> (orange). For each variable, niche breadth was calculated from species-specific standard deviations (SD) and scaled relative to the maximum SD between species. Thus, a value of 1.0 represents the species with the greatest dispersion for that variable, whereas values below 1.0 represent proportional dispersion relative to that maximum. Values are therefore comparable between species within each variable, but not as absolute measures across variables. We evaluated differences in dispersion using PERMDISP (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0351518#pone.0351518.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>).</p> 2026-10-01T17:26:32Z Image Figure 10.1371/journal.pone.0351518.g002 https://figshare.com/articles/figure/_p_Fine-scale_realized_niche_characterization_and_habitat_affinity_p_/34047739 CC BY 4.0