The influence of biogeographic history on the functional and phylogenetic diversity of passerine birds in savannas and forests of the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Passeriformes is the largest and most diverse avian order in the world and comprises the Passeri and Tyranni suborders. These suborders constitute a monophyletic group, but differ in their ecology and history of occupation of South America. We investigated the influence of biogeographic history on functional and phylogenetic diversities of Passeri and Tyranni in forest and savanna habitats in the Brazilian Amazon. We compiled species composition data for 34 Passeriformes assemblages, 12 in savannas and 22 in forests. We calculated the functional (Rao's quadratic entropy, FDQ) and phylogenetic diversities (mean pairwise distance, MPD, and mean nearest taxon distance, MNTD), and the functional beta diversity to investigate the potential role of biogeographic history in shaping ecological traits and species lineages of both suborders. The functional diversity of Passeri was higher than for Tyranni in both habitats. The MPD for Tyranni was higher than for Passeri in forests; however, there was no difference between the suborders in savannas. In savannas, Passeri presented higher MNTD than Tyranni, while in forest areas, Tyranni assemblages showed higher MNTD than Passeri. We found a high functional turnover (~75%) between Passeri and Tyranni in both habitats. The high functional diversity of Passeri in both habitats is due to the high diversity of ecological traits exhibited by species of this group, which enables the exploitation of a wide variety of resources and foraging strategies. The higher Tyranni MPD and MNTD in forests is likely due to Tyranni being older settlers in this habitat, resulting in the emergence and persistence of more lineages. The higher Passeri MNTD in savannas can be explained by the existence of a larger number of different Passeri lineages adapted to this severe habitat. The high functional turnover between the suborders in both habitats suggests an ecological strategy to avoid niche overlap.

Farmland bird assemblages exhibit higher functional and phylogenetic diversity than forest assemblages in France

“…Although it is expected that severe habitats such as savannas (Almeida, Juen, Sobral, & Dantas Santos, 2018) and agricultural landscapes (Deikumah, Kwafo, & Konadu, 2017) tend to harbour assemblages with lower PD because the persistence of some lineages is jeopardized, we found the opposite pattern; forest assemblages exhibited lower PD than those located in farmlands. This result indicates that, although farmland intensification has led to a sharp F I G U R E 3 Temporal trends in (a) phylogenetic (SES PD ) and generic functional (SES Rao ) diversity, and (b) multidimensional functional diversity metrics (FRic, FDiv and FEve) over the study period (2002-2014 (Farina, 1997).…”

Spatial variation in phylogenetic diversity of communities of Atlantic Forest harvestmen (Opiliones, Arachnida)

“…One measure of biodiversity, in particular, phylogenetic diversity (PD; Faith, 1992), has generated a lot of interest (e.g. Cadotte et al, 2010;Morlon et al, 2011;Weinstein et al, 2014;Honorio Coronado et al, 2015;Nunes et al, 2015;da Silva et al, 2016;Moura et al, 2017;Almeida et al, 2018). PD measures the phylogenetic distance among all species present in a community and compares this distance against the total phylogenetic diversity of the taxa in a particular region.…”

Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls of Leptophlebiidae (Ephemeroptera: Insecta) in the Brazilian Amazon

“…This allows for a more detailed analysis of existing data on species, resulting in more effective syntheses on priority areas or species groups for studies. This strategy has proven successful in works involving fishes (Dagosta & Pinna, 2019), birds (Almeida et al, 2018), mammals (Da Silva et al, 2022) and aquatic insects (Nóbrega et al, 2011).…”