Regional variability in landscape effects on forest bird communities
Regional variability in landscape effects on forest bird communities
Context: Functional responses to landscape heterogeneity are context-dependent, hampering the transferability of landscape-scale conservation initiatives. Japan provides a unique opportunity to test for regional modification of landscape effects due to its broad temperature gradient, coincident with a gradient of historical disturbance intensity. Objectives: To quantify and understand how regional contexts modify forest bird community responses to landscape heterogeneity across Japan. Methods: We characterised the functional trait composition and diversity of breeding bird communities from 297 forest sites, and applied a cross-scale analytical framework to explain regional variation in community responses. Results: The effects of landscape diversity, coincident with forest loss, varied in strength and even direction across the temperature gradient. Cool regions of Japan with highly forested, homogeneous landscapes supported bird communities dominated by forest specialists: those with narrow habitat breadths and insectivorous diets. Warmer regions comprised communities dominated by generalists with wider habitat breadths, even in contiguous, highly forested landscapes. Heterogeneous landscapes selected for generalists, and only promoted functional trait diversity in cool regions where both specialists and generalists can be supplied by a diverse regional pool. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence that regional variation in trait responses to landscape heterogeneity—driven by past environmental filtering and broad-scale climates—leads to differential community responses across Japan. Future research that seeks a nuanced understanding of the regional modification of landscape variables will better serve to inform and target real-world conservation efforts.
Biodiversity, Cross-scale interaction, Diet, Extinction filter, Functional diversity, Habitat breadth, Japan, Landscape heterogeneity, Legacy
1055–1071
Spake, Rebecca
1cda8ad0-2ab2-45d9-a844-ec3d8be2786a
Soga, Masashi
5112e9c5-d912-42a9-adfc-38b774fe703f
Kawamura, Kazuhiro
f3648e0a-e413-4fd8-8d60-6c75b322c19d
Cooke, Robert
25919276-1693-4663-a306-a90e2db2a91f
Yamaura, Yuichi
bbf8dfea-dc1b-4e25-9919-cc76d293ec2c
Eigenbrod, Felix
43efc6ae-b129-45a2-8a34-e489b5f05827
1 May 2020
Spake, Rebecca
1cda8ad0-2ab2-45d9-a844-ec3d8be2786a
Soga, Masashi
5112e9c5-d912-42a9-adfc-38b774fe703f
Kawamura, Kazuhiro
f3648e0a-e413-4fd8-8d60-6c75b322c19d
Cooke, Robert
25919276-1693-4663-a306-a90e2db2a91f
Yamaura, Yuichi
bbf8dfea-dc1b-4e25-9919-cc76d293ec2c
Eigenbrod, Felix
43efc6ae-b129-45a2-8a34-e489b5f05827
Spake, Rebecca, Soga, Masashi, Kawamura, Kazuhiro, Cooke, Robert, Yamaura, Yuichi and Eigenbrod, Felix
(2020)
Regional variability in landscape effects on forest bird communities.
Landscape Ecology, 35 (5), .
(doi:10.1007/s10980-020-01005-9).
Abstract
Context: Functional responses to landscape heterogeneity are context-dependent, hampering the transferability of landscape-scale conservation initiatives. Japan provides a unique opportunity to test for regional modification of landscape effects due to its broad temperature gradient, coincident with a gradient of historical disturbance intensity. Objectives: To quantify and understand how regional contexts modify forest bird community responses to landscape heterogeneity across Japan. Methods: We characterised the functional trait composition and diversity of breeding bird communities from 297 forest sites, and applied a cross-scale analytical framework to explain regional variation in community responses. Results: The effects of landscape diversity, coincident with forest loss, varied in strength and even direction across the temperature gradient. Cool regions of Japan with highly forested, homogeneous landscapes supported bird communities dominated by forest specialists: those with narrow habitat breadths and insectivorous diets. Warmer regions comprised communities dominated by generalists with wider habitat breadths, even in contiguous, highly forested landscapes. Heterogeneous landscapes selected for generalists, and only promoted functional trait diversity in cool regions where both specialists and generalists can be supplied by a diverse regional pool. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence that regional variation in trait responses to landscape heterogeneity—driven by past environmental filtering and broad-scale climates—leads to differential community responses across Japan. Future research that seeks a nuanced understanding of the regional modification of landscape variables will better serve to inform and target real-world conservation efforts.
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Revised_manuscript
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 25 March 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 April 2020
Published date: 1 May 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This research was funded by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Bridge Fellowship awarded to RS, and an ERC Starting Grant “SCALEFORES” [Grant No. 680176] awarded to FE. We thank the surveyors who contributed data to this project. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their suggested improvements to earlier versions of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
Keywords:
Biodiversity, Cross-scale interaction, Diet, Extinction filter, Functional diversity, Habitat breadth, Japan, Landscape heterogeneity, Legacy
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 439511
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/439511
ISSN: 0921-2973
PURE UUID: 3fcb3ed0-93a9-472c-a380-4648e8b4b3cb
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Date deposited: 24 Apr 2020 16:44
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:28
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Contributors
Author:
Masashi Soga
Author:
Kazuhiro Kawamura
Author:
Robert Cooke
Author:
Yuichi Yamaura
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