Global invasion in progress: modeling the past, current and potential global distribution of the common myna

The effect of local species composition on the distribution of an avian invader

“…Equivalently, the anthropogenic factor (impervious surfaces, human density) had the largest contribution to explaining the current myna distribution, and was positively correlated with the probability of myna presence. This finding indicates that urbanization is an important mediating factor in the spread of this avian invader in Israel, complementing results obtained on a global scale 33 . Moreover, by eventually spreading across the Israeli heterogeneous landscape, including its southern desert, common mynas demonstrate their ability to invade areas where the environmental conditions are different than their natural range, possibly through the aid of urbanization.…”

“…Despite occurring through diverse habitats across the country, this finding was consistent, highlighting the significance of the environmental features over species composition. We postulate that the minor contribution of species co-occurrence to explaining the current distribution of common mynas in Israel is a result of the species’ behaviour flexibility and broad environmental tolerance 33,38–40 , which allow it to occupy various environments regardless of the local species composition. This result is also echoed in the broad global range this species occupies, that spans multiple ecosystems and vastly different communities 33 .…”

“…We postulate that the minor contribution of species co-occurrence to explaining the current distribution of common mynas in Israel is a result of the species’ behaviour flexibility and broad environmental tolerance 33,38–40 , which allow it to occupy various environments regardless of the local species composition. This result is also echoed in the broad global range this species occupies, that spans multiple ecosystems and vastly different communities 33 . Since the level of urbanization (as reflected in the area of impervious surfaces) had the largest contribution to the model, it is likely that common mynas favour urbanized areas, where species are expected to display higher levels of neophilia and innovation 41 .…”

“…We also corrected for spatial autocorrelation by applying a filter of a minimum distance of 3 km to the occurrence records as shown by Magory Cohen et al . 33 . Because of the political nature of the region, sampling effort was lower in the West Bank territories (n myna = 105) and the Gaza Strip (n myna = 0) to which common mynas are also assumed to have spread.…”

“…28 ), and occurred over a very heterogeneous landscape which includes four phytogeographic areas 29 , four Köppen climate classifications 30 , altitude ranging from (−430) to 2,814 meters and diverse communities of animal and plant species 31,32 . The richness of environmental features that exist in a small area allows for studying the invasion process over different ecosystems and represents many of the environmental conditions previously found to be important in determining the species global distribution 33 . Despite the relatively short time that has passed since the introduction, common mynas have reached all ends of the country and beyond (invading neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan; Ramadan-jaradi 34 , Khoury and Alshamlih 35 ), and we therefore treat them as being at equilibrium at the study domain.…”