1
|
Jirinec V, Rodrigues PF, Amaral BR, Stouffer PC. Light and temperature niches of ground‐foraging Amazonian insectivorous birds. Ecology 2022; 103:e3645. [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2021] [Revised: 10/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Vitek Jirinec
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), CP 478 Manaus AM Brazil
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University and LSU AgCenter Baton Rouge Louisiana USA
- Integral Ecology Research Center 239 Railroad Ave Blue Lake California USA
| | - Patricia F. Rodrigues
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), CP 478 Manaus AM Brazil
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University and LSU AgCenter Baton Rouge Louisiana USA
| | - Bruna R. Amaral
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), CP 478 Manaus AM Brazil
- Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Pennsylvania State University, University Park Pennsylvania USA
| | - Philip C. Stouffer
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), CP 478 Manaus AM Brazil
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University and LSU AgCenter Baton Rouge Louisiana USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Ausprey IJ. Adaptations to light contribute to the ecological niches and evolution of the terrestrial avifauna. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20210853. [PMID: 33975477 PMCID: PMC8113912 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of light in structuring the ecological niche remains a frontier in understanding how vertebrate communities assemble and respond to global change. For birds, eyes represent the primary external anatomical structure specifically evolved to interpret light, yet eye morphology remains understudied compared to movement and dietary traits. Here, I use Stanley Ritland's unpublished measurements of transverse eye diameter from preserved specimens to explore the ecological and phylogenetic drivers of eye morphology for a third of terrestrial avian diversity (N = 2777 species). Species with larger eyes specialized in darker understory and forested habitats, foraging manoeuvres and prey items requiring long-distance optical resolution and were more likely to occur in tropical latitudes. When compared to dietary and movement traits, eye size was a top predictor for habitat, foraging manoeuvre, diet and latitude, adding 8-28% more explanatory power. Eye size was phylogenetically conserved (λ = 0.90), with phylogeny explaining 61% of eye size variation. I suggest that light has contributed to the evolution and assembly of global vertebrate communities and that eye size provides a useful predictor to assess community response to global change.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ian J Ausprey
- Department of Biology and Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Rutt CL, Stouffer PC. Seasonal dynamics of flock interaction networks across a human-modified landscape in lowland Amazonian rain forest. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2021; 31:e02235. [PMID: 33048392 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2020] [Revised: 07/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/16/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Although lowland tropical rain forests were once widely believed to be the archetype of stability, seasonal variation exists. In these environments, seasonality is defined by rainfall, leading to a predictable pattern of biotic and abiotic changes. Only the full annual cycle reveals niche breadth, yet most studies of tropical organisms ignore seasonality, thereby underestimating realized conditions. If human-modified habitats display more seasonal stress than intact habitats, then ignoring seasonality will have particularly important repercussions for conservation. We examined the seasonal dynamics of Amazonian mixed-species flocks, an important species interaction network, across three habitats with increasing human disturbance. We quantified seasonal space use, species richness and attendance, and four ecological network metrics for flocks in primary forest, small forest fragments, and regenerating secondary forest in central Amazonia. Our results indicate that, even in intact, lowland rain forest, mixed-species flocks exhibit seasonal differences. During the dry season, flocks included more species, generally ranged over larger areas, and displayed network structures that were less complex and less cohesive. We speculate that-because most flocking species nest during the dry season, a time of reduced arthropod abundance-flocks are simultaneously constrained by these two competing pressures. Moreover, these seasonal differences were most pronounced in forest fragments and secondary forest, habitats that are less buffered from the changing seasons. Our results suggest that seasonality influences the conservation value of human-modified habitats, raising important questions about how rain forest organisms will cope with an increasingly unstable climate.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cameron L Rutt
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803, USA
| | - Philip C Stouffer
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Ausprey IJ, Newell FL, Robinson SK. Adaptations to light predict the foraging niche and disassembly of avian communities in tropical countrysides. Ecology 2020; 102:e03213. [PMID: 33002207 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2020] [Revised: 06/21/2020] [Accepted: 08/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The role of light in partitioning ecological niche space remains a frontier in understanding the assembly of terrestrial vertebrate communities and their response to global change. Leveraging recent advances in biologging technology and intensive field surveys of cloud forest bird communities across an agricultural land use gradient in the Peruvian Andes, we demonstrate that eye size predicts (1) the ambient light microenvironment used by free-ranging birds, (2) their foraging niche, and (3) species-specific sensitivity to agricultural land use change. For 15 species carrying light sensors (N = 71 individuals), light intensity levels were best explained by eye size and foraging behavior, with larger-eyed species using darker microenvironments. Across the cloud forest bird community (N = 240 species), hyperopic ("far-sighted") foragers, (e.g., flycatchers), had larger eyes compared to myopic ("near-sighted") species (e.g., gleaners and frugivores); eye size was also larger for myopic insectivores that foraged in the forest understory. Eye size strongly predicted sensitivity to brightly lit habitats across an agricultural land use gradient. Species that increased in abundance in mixed intensity agriculture, including fencerows, silvopasture, and pasture, had smaller eyes, suggesting that light acts as an environmental filter when communities disassemble in a human-disturbed landscape. We suggest that eye size represents a novel functional trait contributing to terrestrial vertebrate community assembly and sensitivity to habitat disturbance.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ian J Ausprey
- Florida Museum of Natural History and Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA
| | - Felicity L Newell
- Florida Museum of Natural History and Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA
| | - Scott K Robinson
- Florida Museum of Natural History and Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Stouffer PC, Jirinec V, Rutt CL, Bierregaard RO, Hernández-Palma A, Johnson EI, Midway SR, Powell LL, Wolfe JD, Lovejoy TE. Long-term change in the avifauna of undisturbed Amazonian rainforest: ground-foraging birds disappear and the baseline shifts. Ecol Lett 2020; 24:186-195. [PMID: 33103837 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2020] [Revised: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
How are rainforest birds faring in the Anthropocene? We use bird captures spanning > 35 years from 55 sites within a vast area of intact Amazonian rainforest to reveal reduced abundance of terrestrial and near-ground insectivores in the absence of deforestation, edge effects or other direct anthropogenic landscape change. Because undisturbed forest includes far fewer terrestrial and near-ground insectivores than it did historically, today's fragments and second growth are more impoverished than shown by comparisons with modern 'control' sites. Any goals for bird community recovery in Amazonian second growth should recognise that a modern bird community will inevitably differ from a baseline from > 35 years ago. Abundance patterns driven by landscape change may be the most conspicuous manifestation of human activity, but biodiversity declines in undisturbed forest represent hidden losses, possibly driven by climate change, that may be pervasive in intact Amazonian forests and other systems considered to be undisturbed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Philip C Stouffer
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.,Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil
| | - Vitek Jirinec
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.,Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil
| | - Cameron L Rutt
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.,Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil.,Department of Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA
| | - Richard O Bierregaard
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil
| | - Angélica Hernández-Palma
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.,Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil.,Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Avenida Paseo Bolívar 16-20, Bogotá, D.C, Colombia
| | - Erik I Johnson
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.,Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil.,National Audubon Society, 5615 Corporate Blvd. #600b, Baton Rouge, LA, 70808, USA
| | - Stephen R Midway
- Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA
| | - Luke L Powell
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.,Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil.,School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
| | - Jared D Wolfe
- School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University AgCenter and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.,Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil.,College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA
| | - Thomas E Lovejoy
- Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011, Brazil.,Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030-4444, USA
| |
Collapse
|