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Trait evolution, resource specialization and vulnerability to plant extinctions among Antillean hummingbirds.

ABSTRACT: Species traits are thought to predict feeding specialization and the vulnerability of a species to extinctions of interaction partners, but the context in which a species evolved and currently inhabits may also matter. Notably, the predictive power of traits may require that traits evolved to fit interaction partners. Furthermore, local abiotic and biotic conditions may be important. On islands, for instance, specialized and vulnerable species are predicted to be found mainly in mountains, whereas species in lowlands should be generalized and less vulnerable. We evaluated these predictions for hummingbirds and their nectar-food plants on Antillean islands. Our results suggest that the rates of hummingbird trait divergence were higher among ancestral mainland forms before the colonization of the Antilles. In correspondence with the limited trait evolution that occurred within the Antilles, local abiotic and biotic conditions-not species traits-correlate with hummingbird resource specialization and the vulnerability of hummingbirds to extinctions of their floral resources. Specifically, hummingbirds were more specialized and vulnerable in conditions with high topographical complexity, high rainfall, low temperatures and high floral resource richness, which characterize the Antillean Mountains. These findings show that resource specialization and species vulnerability to extinctions of interaction partners are highly context-dependent.

SUBMITTER: Dalsgaard B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5897636 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Trait evolution, resource specialization and vulnerability to plant extinctions among Antillean hummingbirds.

Dalsgaard Bo B Kennedy Jonathan D JD Simmons Benno I BI Baquero Andrea C AC Martín González Ana M AM Timmermann Allan A Maruyama Pietro K PK McGuire Jimmy A JA Ollerton Jeff J Sutherland William J WJ Rahbek Carsten C

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20180301 1875

Species traits are thought to predict feeding specialization and the vulnerability of a species to extinctions of interaction partners, but the context in which a species evolved and currently inhabits may also matter. Notably, the predictive power of traits may require that traits evolved to fit interaction partners. Furthermore, local abiotic and biotic conditions may be important. On islands, for instance, specialized and vulnerable species are predicted to be found mainly in mountains, where ...[more]

PMID: 29563263

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Project description:1. The plant community structure of European lowland forests has changed dramatically in the 20th century, leading to biodiversity decline at various spatial scales. However, due to methodological difficulties associated with simultaneous changes in species diversity and composition, ecological processes behind the changes are still poorly understood. 2. We analysed temporal changes in forest plant community after the mid-20th century abandonment of coppicing in a typical Central European forest, which had been managed as coppice for centuries. We used 122 semi-permanent plots first surveyed in the 1950s shortly after the last coppicing and again in the 2000s after half a century of natural succession. We used a novel Temporal Nestedness Analysis to disentangle the immigration and extinction processes underlying temporal changes in community structure and tested whether species gains and losses were ecologically random. 3. The studied vegetation has shifted from the species-rich assemblages of a relatively open and low-nutrient forest towards the impoverished flora of a closed-canopy forest dominated by a few shade-adapted species. The significant reduction of beta diversity, i.e. compositional heterogeneity among plots, indicated taxonomic homogenization of the forest understorey. Temporal species turnover was only a minor component of the community change and recent assemblages are nested subsets of the former ones. Ecologically non-random extinctions dominated these changes. Light-demanding species with a persistent seed-bank were the most prone to extinction, while species with high specific leaf area substantially increased in frequency. 4. Synthesis and applications. The dominant process after the abandonment of coppicing was the ecologically non-random extinction of light-demanding species leading to an impoverished, temporally nested plant community structure. This development is typical for many abandoned lowland coppice forests and poses a significant threat to forest biodiversity in Europe. If forestry and conservation policies continue to prefer closed-canopy stands, many endangered species are likely to pay their extinction debts. To restore declining or even locally extinct species, canopy opening in abandoned coppices is urgently needed.

Dataset Information

Trait evolution, resource specialization and vulnerability to plant extinctions among Antillean hummingbirds.

Publications

Trait evolution, resource specialization and vulnerability to plant extinctions among Antillean hummingbirds.

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