Niche–trait relationships at individual and population level in three co‐occurring passerine species

Shaner, Pei Jen L.; Chen, Yin Kai; Hsu, Yu‐Kuei

doi:10.1002/ece3.7569

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Beyond the relevance of a species-specific approach, in the past decade the increasing attention on a trait-based approach allowed highlighting emergent ecological patterns in groups of birds sharing similar life-history and ecological traits [49][50][51][52][53]. The relationship between the ecological niche and species traits has been mainly explored under an evolutionary perspective ( [54][55][56]), but there is a lack of studies focusing on ecological aspects (but see [57,58]). Revealing such types of ecological signal would point out a non-random evolution of niche changes, suggesting the existence of shared ecological pressures within groups of species sharing similar characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Evidence on the Linkage of Population Trends and Species Traits to Long-Term Niche Changes

Tirozzi

Orioli

Dondina

et al. 2022

Birds

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Despite the assessment of long-term niche dynamics could provide crucial information for investigating species responses to environmental changes, it is a poorly investigated topic in ecology. Here, we present a case study of multi-species niche analysis for 71 common breeding birds in Northern Italy, exploring long-term niche changes from 1992 to 2017 and their relationship with both population trends and species traits. We (i) quantified the realized Grinnellian niche in the environmental space, (ii) compared variations in niche breadth and centroid, (iii) tested niche divergence and conservatism through equivalency and similarity tests, (iv) calculated niche temporal overlap, expansion and unfilling indices, and (v) investigated their association with both population changes and species traits. Results supported niche divergence (equivalency test) for 32% of species, although two-thirds were not supported by the similarity test. We detected a general tendency to adjust the niche centroids towards warmer thermal conditions. Increasing populations were positively correlated with niche expansion, while negatively correlated with niche overlap, albeit at the limit of the significance threshold. We found moderate evidence for a non-random association between niche changes and species traits, especially for body size, clutch size, number of broods per year, inhabited landscape type, and migration strategy. We encourage studies correlating long-term population trends and niche changes with species traits’ information and a specific focus on cause-effect relationship at both the single and multiple-species level.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Evidence on the Linkage of Population Trends and Species Traits to Long-Term Niche Changes

Tirozzi

Orioli

Dondina

et al. 2022

Birds

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“…Briefly, isotopic divergence measures the degree to which the individuals are close to the population niche centre (it tends to 0 when most of the points are close to the centre, and it approaches 1 when most of the points are located on the edges); isotopic dispersion measures the deviation the individuals are to the population niche centre divided by the maximal distance to the centre (it tends to 0 when most of the points have the same positions, and it increases when most of the points have contrasted positions); isotopic evenness measures the regularity in the distribution of individuals along the shortest tree that links all the individuals in the population (it tends to 0 when most of the points are packed within a small region, and it approaches to 1 when most of the points are evenly distributed); isotopic uniqueness measures the average closeness of individuals within the population niche (it tends to 0 when each point has at least one point with the same position, and it approaches 1 when most of the points are uniquely positioned). These metrics have been applied in a recent study (Shaner et al, 2021) to show that individual different trophic roles within the community niche space as overall competition increases. Denser niche packing of these rodent communities might be achieved through increased niche overlap.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Niche overlap in rodents increases with competition but not ecological opportunity: A role of inter‐individual difference

Shaner

Ke²

2022

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Niche variation at population level mediates niche packing (i.e. patterns of species' spread within the niche space) and species coexistence at community level. Competition and ecological opportunity (resource diversity) are two of the main mechanisms underlying niche variation. Dense niche packing could occur through increased niche partitioning or increased niche overlap. In this study, we used stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data of 635 individual rodents from four species across nine sites in the montane region of a subtropical island to test the effects of competition and ecological opportunity on population isotope niche size, inter‐individual niche difference within population and interspecific niche overlap within community. We used the Bayesian Standard Ellipse Area (SEAB, the ellipse area enclosed by carbon and nitrogen isotope values of organisms on a bi‐plot) to estimate population niche size and interspecific niche overlap. Inter‐individual niche difference within population was quantified as isotopic divergence and isotopic uniqueness. We used rodent abundance (the number of unique individuals captured) to measure competition and plant isotope niche size (plant SEAB) to measure ecological opportunity. The rodents experienced competition as evidenced by a negative relationship between population change rate and conspecific abundance. Rodent population niche size increased with ecological opportunity but not competition. The inter‐individual niche difference (isotopic uniqueness) increased with competition (interspecific competition only) but not ecological opportunity. At community level, interspecific niche overlap (herbivore–omnivore pair only) increased with competition (the combined abundance of the pair) but not ecological opportunity. This study demonstrated that isotope niche variation of the rodents could be hierarchically influenced by ecological opportunity and competition, with the former setting the limit of population niche size across communities and the latter shaping inter‐individual niche difference and interspecific niche overlap within communities. Under strong intraspecific competition and limited ecological opportunity for niche expansion, individuals may choose to increase their isotopic uniqueness from conspecifics at the cost of overlapping with heterospecifics of different trophic roles within the community niche space as overall competition increases. Denser niche packing of these rodent communities might be achieved through increased niche overlap.

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“…In trait‐based ecology, diversity metrics are usually based on the traits of taxonomic species and their abundance (Shaner et al, 2021). Yet, taxonomic information is not always available.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for quantifying soundscape diversity using Hill numbers

et al. 2022

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1. Soundscape studies are increasingly used to capture landscape-scale ecological patterns. Yet, several aspects of soundscape diversity remain unexplored.Although some processes influencing acoustic niche usage may operate in the 24-hr temporal domain, most acoustic indices only capture the diversity of sounds co-occurring in sound files at a specific time of day. Moreover, many indices do not consider the relationship between the spectral and temporal traits of sounds simultaneously. To provide novel insights into landscape-scale patterns of acoustic niche usage at broader temporal scales, we present a workflow to quantify soundscape diversity through the lens of trait-based ecology.2. Our workflow quantifies the diversity of sound in the 24-hr acoustic trait space.We introduce the Operational Sound Unit (OSU), a unit of diversity measurement that groups sounds by their shared acoustic properties. Using OSUs and building on the framework of Hill numbers, we propose three metrics that capture different aspects of acoustic trait space usage: (i) soundscape richness, (ii) soundscape diversity and (iii) soundscape evenness. We demonstrate the use of these metrics by (a) simulating soundscapes to assess whether the indices possess a set of desirable behaviours and (b) quantifying soundscape richness and evenness along a gradient in species richness.3. We demonstrate that (a) the indices outlined herein have desirable behaviours and (b) the soundscape richness and evenness are positively correlated with the richness of sound-producing species. This suggests that more acoustic niche space is occupied when the species richness is higher. Additionally, speciespoor acoustic communities have a higher proportion of rare sounds and use the acoustic space less evenly.

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Niche–trait relationships at individual and population level in three co‐occurring passerine species

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 5 publications

References 89 publications

New Evidence on the Linkage of Population Trends and Species Traits to Long-Term Niche Changes

New Evidence on the Linkage of Population Trends and Species Traits to Long-Term Niche Changes

Niche overlap in rodents increases with competition but not ecological opportunity: A role of inter‐individual difference

A framework for quantifying soundscape diversity using Hill numbers

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