Macroecologists seek to identify drivers of community turnover (β-diversity) through broad spatial scales. However, the influence of local habitat features in driving broad-scale β-diversity patterns remains largely untested, owing to the objective challenges of associating local-scale variables to continental-framed datasets. We examined the relative contribution of local- versus broad-scale drivers of continental β-diversity patterns, using a uniquely suited dataset of cave-dwelling spider communities across Europe (35-70° latitude). Generalized dissimilarity modelling showed that geographical distance, mean annual temperature and size of the karst area in which caves occurred drove most of β-diversity, with differential contributions of each factor according to the level of subterranean specialization. Highly specialized communities were mostly influenced by geographical distance, while less specialized communities were mostly driven by mean annual temperature. Conversely, local-scale habitat features turned out to be meaningless predictors of community change, which emphasizes the idea of caves as the human accessible fraction of the extended network of fissures that more properly represents the elective habitat of the subterranean fauna. To the extent that the effect of local features turned to be inconspicuous, caves emerge as experimental model systems in which to study broad biological patterns without the confounding effect of local habitat features.

Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales Cardiff UK

Biology Centre CAS Institute of Entomology České Budějovice Czech Republic

Commissione Grotte 'E Boegan' Società Alpina delle Giulie C A 1 Trieste Italy

Conservatoire d'Espaces Naturels de Midi Pyrénées Toulouse France

Croatian Biospeleological Society Zagreb Croatia

Department of Biology Faculty of Science and Arts Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Erzincan Turkey

Department of Biology Faculty of Science Eskişehir Technical University Eskişehir Turkey

Department of Evolutionary Biology Ecology and Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity Research Institute University of Barcelona Barcelona Spain

Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology University of Torino Torino Italy

Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary

Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology University of the Basque Country Bilbao Spain

Department of Zoology Hungarian Natural History Museum Budapest Hungary

Ecole d'Ingénieur de Purpan Toulouse France

Emil Racovitza Institute of Speleology Cluj Napoca Romania

Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University Warszawa Poland

Independent Researcher Basque Country Spain

Independent Researcher Blwd Kuzman Josifovski Pitu Skopje Republic of North Macedonia

Independent Researcher Hummeltal Germany

Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Sofia Bulgaria

Institute of Zoology University of Belgrade Faculty of Biology Belgrade Serbia

LIBRe Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research Finnish Museum of Natural History University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

National Museum of Natural History Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia Bulgaria

OEKOTEAM Institute for Animal Ecology and Landscape Planning Graz Austria

Pavol Jozef Šafárik University Košice Slovakia

Romanian Institute of Science and Technology Cluj Napoca Romania

Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Kiev Ukraine

UMDI Faculty of Sciences UNAM National Autonomous University of Mexico Sisal Mexico

Verband der deutschen Höhlen und Karstforscher e 5 Fulda Germany

Zoological Collection of Cyprus Wildlife Research Institute Taşkent Kyrenia Cyprus

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Local- versus broad-scale environmental drivers of continental β-diversity patterns in subterranean spider communities across Europe

Continental data on cave-dwelling spider communities across Europe (Arachnida: Araneae)

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Dryad
10.5061/dryad.qz612jm8z

figshare
10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4696505