受到强烈干扰的生态系统中往往生物多样性较低，干扰能成为环境因子“过滤器”使得系统中拥有特定适应性状的物种得以存在。基于系统发生学进化过程中亲缘关系越近、物种对外界干扰反应越相似的假设，近日，中科院西双版纳热带植物园生态进化组博士后Matthew Helmus博士等的研究表明，受干扰生态系统中的生物群落更易富集近缘种。相关研究成果在生态学领域顶级刊物ECOLOGY LETTERS上在线发表。

Matthew Helmus博士等通过对受生物干扰（如物种入侵）、化学干扰（如酸化）、物理干扰（如控制水位线）三种干扰类型的18个湖泊和16个对照湖泊中浮游动物的群落变化情况，发现无论哪种类型的干扰均会促使湖泊里浮游动物群落中近缘种普遍增加，物种的变化与群落内物种丰富度、均匀度及群体的数量无关；研究还发现在酸性胁迫下湖泊中浮游动物群落变化最激烈；物种对特定干扰的敏感性具有系统发育学上的遗传性，与个体的大小无关，而且这种敏感性可以通过近缘种的行为进行预测。因此，物种系统发育学的研究不失为一种用于研究和测量种群和群落对生态系统受到干扰的响应机制的有效手段。

Matthew Helmus 博士毕业于美国威斯康星大学，自2009年3月起在版纳植物园生态进化组做博士后研究，主要从事生态学、进化学及统计学的交叉研究，着重于进化过程中亲缘关系相近的近缘种是否具有相似的生态变量的研究。同时结合新一代测序技术试图从基因组水平探知物种的进化关系，从而推测物种的入侵与灭绝。

原始出处：

Ecology Letters 8 Dec 2009 DOI:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01411.x

Communities contain closely related species during ecosystem disturbance

Matthew R. Helmus 1,2*, Wendel (Bill) Keller 3 , Michael J. Paterson 4 , Norman D. Yan 5 , Charles H. Cannon 1 and James A. Rusak 6,?

1 Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China
2 Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
3 Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6 Canada
4 Fisheries and Oceans R3T 2N6 Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
5 Biology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
6 Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Boulder Junction, WI 54512, USA

Predicting community and species responses to disturbance is complicated by incomplete knowledge about species traits. A phylogenetic framework should partially solve this problem, as trait similarity is generally correlated with species relatedness, closely related species should have similar sensitivities to disturbance. Disturbance should thus result in community assemblages of closely related species. We tested this hypothesis with 18 disturbed and 16 reference whole-lake, long-term zooplankton data sets. Regardless of disturbance type, communities generally contained more closely related species when disturbed. This effect was independent of species richness, evenness, and abundance. Communities already under stress (i.e., those in acidic lakes) changed most when disturbed. Species sensitivities to specific disturbances were phylogenetically conserved, were independent of body size, and could be predicted by the sensitivities of close relatives within the same community. Phylogenetic relatedness can effectively act as a proxy for missing trait information when predicting community and species responses to disturbance.