Climate as a major driver of avian diversity in riparian Amazonian habitats along an environmental gradient

Liu

et al. 2022

Land

The decomposition of taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional beta diversity into their turnover and nestedness components could provide novel insights into biodiversity conservation, e.g., provide implications for the Single Large Or Several Small reserves debate (SLOSS debate). Due to dramatic climate change and massive anthropogenic activities in recent decades in North China, the wetlands and the associated biodiversity in this region have declined significantly. This study applied the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional beta diversity decomposition for the first time in wetland bird communities in North China, aiming to propose scientific and comprehensive suggestions for bird diversity conservation in this region. A paired t-test was used to compare the differences between taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional turnover, and their nestedness components. In addition, a spearman correlation analysis was used to assess the associations between each explanatory variable (differences in mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation, as well as spatial distances) and each beta diversity index. A total of 546 bird species were found in 38 wetlands in North China, with three critically endangered species, 19 endangered species, 22 vulnerable species, and 61 near threatened species. The number of threatened species (critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable) found in these lakes was about 30% of all threatened species in China. The results showed that taxonomic and phylogenetic beta diversity among wetland bird communities in North China was mainly dominated by turnover, while functional beta diversity was mainly dominated by nestedness. Importantly, the phylogenetic and functional results showed similar patterns even after controlling for the effects of taxonomic beta diversity. In addition, the taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover was more associated with both climate variables and spatial distances than other components. The contrasting patterns among the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional decompositions of wetland bird communities in North China indicate that distinctive conservation strategies should be considered for different biodiversity dimensions. Specifically, the conservation of taxonomic and phylogenetic bird diversity in this region should focus on multiple wetlands, while the conservation of bird functional diversity should focus on a single wetland with high functional diversity.

Section: Higher Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Turnover But Lower Functio...supporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Higher Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Turnover But Lower Functio...mentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Higher Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Turnover But Lower Functio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Dominated Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Turnover but Functional Nestedness of Wetland Bird Beta Diversity in North China

Liu

et al. 2022

Land

“…Climatic factors such as precipitation and temperature are related to the variation in beta diversity patterns (Naka et al, 2020;Wayman et al, 2021). We found that precipitation was an important factor in explaining the variation in beta diversity patterns in the W Himalaya.…”

Section: Role Of Environmental Filteringmentioning

confidence: 68%

Drivers of Taxonomic, Phylogenetic, and Functional Beta Diversity of Himalayan Riverine Birds

et al. 2022

Abiotic and biotic factors drive compositional differences among local species assemblages. Determining the influence of different drivers on beta diversity patterns can provide insights into processes governing community organization. Examining beta diversity patterns along taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional dimensions enables a nuanced understanding of underlying processes that govern community assembly and dynamics. The dynamic and complex riparian habitats in the Himalaya, and the hyper-diverse riverine bird community offer a fascinating setup to examine the role of environmental factors in influencing community structuring. Using a large dataset on river bird communities from field census across multiple drainages in the Indian Himalaya, we aimed at discerning processes that structure these communities through an understanding of pair-wise dissimilarities in species composition across sites. We determined the relative contributions of turnover and nestedness in taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional beta diversity patterns in the Eastern and Western Himalaya that differ in species richness. Generalized Dissimilarity Modeling was used to examine the relative contributions of climatic, geographic, and anthropogenic factors toward explaining different metrics of beta diversity. The riverine bird communities in the drier and seasonal Western Himalaya were poorer in species richness, more phylogenetically and functionally clustered than that in the Eastern Himalaya. The contribution of the turnover component to the overall beta diversity was higher than the nestedness component in river bird communities, particularly in the Eastern Himalaya. Habitat and climatic factors differentially influenced the beta diversity patterns in both Eastern and Western Himalaya, with river width consistently explaining a large variation in beta diversity in the east and the west. The results show that environmental filtering plays a crucial role in structuring riverine bird communities in the Himalayan headwaters, highlighting the need to ameliorate the threats posed by the slew of hydroelectric projects and forest loss in the region.

Diversity and Distributions

“…Biotic factors (intra‐ and interspecific interactions between species) may also be regulated by abiotic factors such as climate. Climate may alter species abundance (Naka et al., 2020) or modify the power of biotic interactions (Early & Keith, 2019; Romero et al., 2018). For example, climate might affect the ability of vertebrates to capture their prey (Woodroffe et al., 2017), or the strength of predation by arthropods (Romero et al., 2018), which potentially could alter the outcomes of interspecific interactions and cause spatial or temporal mismatches between interacting species (Early & Keith, 2019; HilleRisLambers et al., 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host diversity outperforms climate as a global driver of symbiont diversity in the bird‐feather mite system

Gusmão

Hernandes

Vancine

et al. 2020

Self Cite

Aim The simultaneous influence of abiotic and biotic factors as main drivers of global species distributions remains poorly understood, especially in host‐dependent groups. In this study, we diverge from traditional macroecological approaches by considering both biotic (avian species diversity) and abiotic (climatic) factors in determining the global distribution pattern of feather mite species richness, one of the most abundant and diverse bird ectosymbionts. Location Global. Methods We used a global dataset of feather mite–bird interactions published in 2016, complemented with an up‐to‐date literature survey. We created statistical models designed to explain the effect of abiotic (i.e., temperature, precipitation and energy‐related variables) and biotic factors (bird species richness) on the species richness of feather mites. We used these models to predict global distribution patterns of mites and estimate each explanatory variable's relative importance in temperate and tropical regions. Results According to our models, bird species richness accounts for ~63% of the global distribution pattern of mites, which is ten times more relevant than climatic variables. Among abiotic drivers, precipitation intensity and seasonality were the most important variables, accounting for 10% of mite species richness. This figure is lower in tropical regions, where biotic factors are seven times more important than in temperate regions. Main conclusions We demonstrate that global mite diversity was primarily determined by biotic and, to a lesser extent, abiotic factors. The relative importance of the predictive variables, however, varied between tropical and temperate regions. The strong association between bird species richness and feather mite species diversity at a global scale raises concerns about the potential for future co‐extinctions.