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Decomposing drivers in avian insectivory: Large-scale effects of climate, habitat and bird diversity
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Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
Aim: Climate is a major driver of large-scale variability in biodiversity, as a likely re-
sult of more intense biotic interactions under warmer conditions. This idea fuelled
decades of research on plant-herbivore interactions, but much less is known about
higher-level trophic interactions. We addressed this research gap by characterizing
both bird diversity and avian predation along a climatic gradient at the European scale.
Location: Europe.
Taxon: Insectivorous birds and pedunculate oaks.
Methods: We deployed plasticine caterpillars in 138 oak trees in 47 sites along a 19°
latitudinal gradient in Europe to quantify bird insectivory through predation attempts.
In addition, we used passive acoustic monitoring to (i) characterize the acoustic diver-
sity of surrounding soundscapes; (ii) approximate bird abundance and activity through passive acoustic recordings; and (iii) infer both taxonomic and functional diversity of
insectivorous birds from recordings.
Results: The functional diversity of insectivorous birds increased with warmer cli-
mates. Bird predation increased with forest cover and bird acoustic activity but de-
creased with mean annual temperature and functional richness of insectivorous birds.
Contrary to our predictions, climatic clines in bird predation attempts were not di-
rectly mediated by changes in insectivorous bird diversity or acoustic activity, but
climate and habitat still had independent effects on predation attempts.
Main Conclusions: Our study supports the hypothesis of an increase in the diversity
of insectivorous birds towards warmer climates but refutes the idea that an increase
in diversity would lead to more predation and advocates for better accounting for
activity and abundance of insectivorous birds when studying the large- scale variation
in insect-tree interactions.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
acoustic diversity climatic gradient functional diversity insectivorous birds plasticine caterpillars predation function
Contexto Educativo
Citação
Schillé, L. et. al. (2024). Decomposing drivers in avian insectivory: Large-scale effects of climate, habitat and bird diversity. Journal of Biogeography, 51, 1079–1094. https:// doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14808