Niche conservatism is the hypothesis that a species' niche remains stable in space and time. This concept is central to understanding phenomena ranging from the role of climate change impacts on species biogeography to community dynamics. Marine zooplankton have been used as indicators of global change in the ocean, and niche conservatism is usually assumed for these organisms due to their high dispersal capacity, which may limit the development of local adaptations. However, recent evidence suggests that several zooplankton species with a circumglobal distribution are comprised of several cryptic species complexes, but it is unknown if the niches of cryptic species complexes have remained conserved or if they have diverged. Habitat management based on niche modelling would be strengthened by better understanding patterns of niche conservation or divergence, as the usual assumption that species have fixed environmental niches may be misleading. We assess the niche differences for 15 copepod species with populations in the North Atlantic, Southern Ocean and Australia. Pairwise differences in the realised niches were computed for each species using two complementary analyses. Our analysis indicates that global-scale niche modelling of zooplankton cannot assume niche conservatism across all lineages and future studies should look to incorporate phylogenetic information to improve future niche estimates.

中文翻译：

---

海洋盆地之间桡足类的生态位保护

生态位保守主义是假设一个物种的生态位在空间和时间上保持稳定。这个概念对于理解从气候变化对物种生物地理学的影响到群落动态的影响的现象至关重要。海洋浮游动物已被用作海洋全球变化的指标，由于这些生物的高扩散能力，通常假设它们具有生态位保守性，这可能会限制局部适应性的发展。然而，最近的证据表明，几个全球分布的浮游动物物种由几个隐性物种复合体组成，但不知道隐性物种复合体的生态位是否保持保守或是否已经分化。通过更好地理解生态位保护或分化的模式，可以加强基于生态位模型的栖息地管理，因为物种具有固定环境生态位的通常假设可能会产生误导。我们评估了北大西洋、南大洋和澳大利亚 15 种桡足类物种的生态位差异。使用两个互补分析计算每个物种的已实现生态位的成对差异。我们的分析表明，浮游动物的全球尺度生态位模型不能假设所有谱系的生态位保守性，未来的研究应该考虑纳入系统发育信息以改善未来的生态位估计。我们评估了北大西洋、南大洋和澳大利亚 15 种桡足类物种的生态位差异。使用两个互补分析计算每个物种的已实现生态位的成对差异。我们的分析表明，浮游动物的全球尺度生态位模型不能假设所有谱系的生态位保守性，未来的研究应该考虑纳入系统发育信息以改善未来的生态位估计。我们评估了北大西洋、南大洋和澳大利亚 15 种桡足类物种的生态位差异。使用两个互补分析计算每个物种的已实现生态位的成对差异。我们的分析表明，浮游动物的全球尺度生态位模型不能假设所有谱系的生态位保守性，未来的研究应该考虑纳入系统发育信息以改善未来的生态位估计。