Positive relationships between interspecific association strength and elevational range overlap highlight the role of facilitation in community assembly

Bird species that participate in mixed-species bird flocks show higher average elevational range overlap than non-participants across a 2000 m gradient in the Eastern Himalaya.

• Why it matters: Abiotic filtering and competition have dominated explanations for community assembly, but whether facilitation shapes geographical range limits and co-occurrence patterns is unclear.
• What they did: Across a 2000 m elevational gradient in the Eastern Himalaya, the study compared elevational range overlap between MSF participants and non-participants and tested pairwise association strength within facilitative interaction modules.
• The result: Pairwise association strength in MSFs is positively correlated with elevational range overlap across all MSF modules, supporting facilitation as a contributor to community assembly across large spatial gradients.

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