Dataset Information

Historic changes in species composition for a globally unique bird community.

ABSTRACT: Significant uncertainties remain of how global change impacts on species richness, relative abundance and species composition. Recently, a discussion emerged on the importance of detecting and understanding long-term fluctuations in species composition and relative abundance and whether deterministic or non-deterministic factors can explain any temporal change. However, currently, one of the main impediments to providing answers to these questions is the relatively short time series of species diversity datasets. Many datasets are limited to 2 years and it is rare for a few decades of data to be available. In addition, long-term data typically has standardization issues from the past and/or the methods are not comparable. We address several of these uncertainties by investigating bird diversity in a globally important mountain ecosystem of the Hkakabo Razi Landscape in northern Myanmar. The study compares bird communities in two periods (pre-1940: 1900-1939 vs. post-2000: 2001-2006). Land-cover classes have been included to provide understanding of their potential role as drivers. While species richness did not change, species composition and relative abundance differed, indicating a significant species turn over and hence temporal change. Only 19.2% of bird species occurred during both periods. Land-cover model predictors explained part of the species richness variability but not relative abundance nor species composition changes. The temporal change is likely caused by minimal methodological differences and partially by land-cover.

SUBMITTER: Renner SC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7329821 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Historic changes in species composition for a globally unique bird community.

Renner Swen C SC Bates Paul J J PJJ

Scientific reports 20200701 1

Significant uncertainties remain of how global change impacts on species richness, relative abundance and species composition. Recently, a discussion emerged on the importance of detecting and understanding long-term fluctuations in species composition and relative abundance and whether deterministic or non-deterministic factors can explain any temporal change. However, currently, one of the main impediments to providing answers to these questions is the relatively short time series of species d ...[more]

PMID: 32612107

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Project description:Animals acquire information produced by other species to reduce uncertainty and avoid predators. Mixed-species flocks (MSFs) of birds are ubiquitous in forest ecosystems and structured, in part, around interspecific information transfer, with "nuclear" species providing information that other species eavesdrop on. We hypothesized that in a seasonal tropical forest, the amount of information produced by birds about predation would be dynamic and particularly would decrease inside MSFs when the nuclear species leave MSFs to breed. We obtained baseline information on MSF encounter rate and species composition along established sampling routes over 9 months near the Sino-Vietnamese border. We also conducted three experiments to quantify information produced by different species in response to typical predator encounters, including a moving predator stimulus presented inside of MSFs, and a stationary predator model presented both inside and outside of MSFs. MSFs were much less frequent in the breeding season with fewer individuals of the nuclear species, David's Fulvetta (Alcippe davidi), participating, though the diversity of other species remained stable. Fulvettas were the dominant producer of alarm-related information both to the moving and stationary stimuli in MSFs and were also among the most active mobbers to stimuli presented outside of MSFs. In the breeding season, they tended to call less to the moving stimulus, and substantially fewer individuals responded to the in-flock stationary stimulus. Other species increased their own information production at stationary predator stimuli (inside and outside of MSFs) during the breeding season, perhaps due to their increased investment in offspring during this time. Yet even during the breeding season, David's Fulvetta remained the highest producer of information about predators in MSFs. Hence, while we show that information production in MSFs can be somewhat dynamic, we describe a continually asymmetric communication system, in which a nuclear species is important to the whole community.

Dataset Information

Historic changes in species composition for a globally unique bird community.

Publications

Historic changes in species composition for a globally unique bird community.

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