Additive Components of Multi‐Species Distributional Aggregation and Their Spatiotemporal Relationships With Multi‐Dimensional Community Structure

ABSTRACT Aim Quantifying multi‐species distributional aggregation remains challenging. We propose the additive partitioning of the two fundamental elements of distributional aggregation, data dispersion and spatial proximity for the purpose of addressing gaps in assessing aggregation patterns. We then interpret how these components spatiotemporally correlate with community structures in both theoretical and empirical settings. Location Barro Colorado Island and North America. Time Period 1968–2018. Major Taxa Studied Birds and trees. Methods We derived additive components of dispersion and proximity and analysed their spatiotemporal dynamics using simulations and empirical data, linking them to alpha‐ and beta‐level community structures. Results Numerical simulations showed that the more overlap of different species' distributions in space, the stronger the spatial proximity effect, while data dispersion increased with the increasing degree of aggregation within each species. Dispersion and its additive components were significantly and positively related to the overall dissimilarity and abundance gradient subcomponent of beta diversity, while proximity and its components were primarily significantly and negatively associated with overall dissimilarity and its balanced variation subcomponent. Empirically, at the alpha level, both dispersion and proximity were significantly higher for phylogenetically clumped tropical trees, but did not have a consistent relation with functional divergence for birds. At the beta level, it was shown that dispersion and proximity and their additive components could well predict the between‐year temporal beta diversity components (subtractive and additive ones) of temporal beta diversity. Conclusion We proposed an additive partitioning framework for multi‐species distributional aggregation and conducted a comprehensive investigation on the spatio‐temporal relationships between multi‐species distributional aggregation (and its components) and alpha/beta‐level community structure. Overall, multi‐species distributional aggregation (and its components) could well predict different features of community structure across space and time.