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Abiotic and biotic drivers of functional diversity and functional composition of bird and bat assemblages along a tropical elevation gradient

  • Aim: The identification of the mechanisms determining spatial variation in biological diversity along elevational gradients is a central objective in ecology and biogeography. Here, we disentangle the direct and indirect effects of abiotic drivers (climatic conditions, and land use) and biotic drivers (vegetation structure and food resources) on functional diversity and composition of bird and bat assemblages along a tropical elevational gradient. Location: Southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, East Africa. Methods: We counted birds and recorded bat sonotypes on 58 plots distributed in near-natural and anthropogenically modified habitats from 700 to 4,600 m above sea level. For the recorded taxa, we compiled functional traits related to movement, foraging and body size from museum specimens and databases. Further, we recorded mean annual temperature, precipitation, vegetation complexity as well as the number of fruits, flowers, and insect biomass as measures of resource availability on each study site. Results: Using path analyses, we found similar responses of bird and bat functional diversity to the variation in abiotic and biotic drivers along the elevational gradient. In contrast, the functional composition of both taxa showed distinct responses to abiotic and biotic drivers. For both groups, direct temperature effects were most important, followed by resource availability, precipitation and vegetation complexity. Main Conclusions: Our findings indicate that physiological and metabolic constraints imposed by temperature and resource availability determine the functional diversity of bird and bat assemblages, whereas the composition of individual functional traits is driven by taxon-specific processes. Our study illustrates that distinct filtering mechanisms can result in similar patterns of functional diversity along broad environmental gradients. Such differences need to be taken into account when it comes to conserving the functional diversity of flying vertebrates on tropical mountains.

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Author:Robert Modest Byamungu, Matthias SchleuningORCiDGND, Stefan W. Ferger, Maria Helbig-Bonitz, Andreas Hemp, Alexander Neu, Anna Vogeler, Katrin Böhning-GaeseORCiDGND, Marco Tschapka, Jörg AlbrechtORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-638377
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13403
ISSN:1472-4642
Parent Title (English):Diversity & distributions
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
Place of publication:Oxford [u.a.]
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2021/09/04
Date of first Publication:2021/09/04
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2022/04/19
Tag:Mount Kilimanjaro; biodiversity; climate; functional traits; land use
Volume:27
Issue:12
Page Number:13
First Page:2344
Last Page:2356
Note:
DFG Research Unit FOR 1246: "Kilimanjaro ecosystems under global change: Linking biodiversity, biotic interactions and biogeochemical ecosystem processes." Grant Numbers: BO-1221/16-3, SCHL 1934/2-3, TS81/5-3
HeBIS-PPN:494332484
Institutes:Biowissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0