TY  - JOUR
A1  - Santillán, Vinicio
A1  - Quitián Rodríguez, Marta
A1  - Tinoco, Boris A.
A1  - Zárate, Edwin
A1  - Schleuning, Matthias
A1  - Böhning-Gaese, Katrin
A1  - Neuschulz, Eike Lena
T1  - Spatio-temporal variation in bird assemblages is associated with fluctuations in temperature and precipitation along a tropical elevational gradient
T2  - PLoS One
N2  - Understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of species assemblages is a main challenge in ecology. The mechanisms that shape species assemblages and their temporal fluctuations along tropical elevational gradients are particularly poorly understood. Here, we examined the spatio-temporal dynamics of bird assemblages along an elevational gradient in Ecuador. We conducted bird point counts at three elevations (1000, 2000 and 3000 m) on 18 1-ha plots and repeated the sampling eight times over two years (216 hours in total). For each plot, we obtained data of monthly temperatures and precipitation and recorded the overall resource availability (i.e., the sum of flower, fruit, and invertebrate resources). As expected, bird richness decreased from low to high elevations. Moreover, we found a significant decrease in bird abundance and richness and an increase in evenness between the most and least humid season at each of the three elevations. Climatic factors were more closely related to these temporal fluctuations than local resource availability. While temperature had significant positive effects on the abundance of birds at mid and high elevations, precipitation negatively affected bird abundance at low and mid elevations. Our study highlights that bird assemblages along tropical elevational gradients can show pronounced seasonal fluctuations. In particular, low temperatures and high precipitation seem to impose important constraints on birds. We conclude that potential changes in climate, due to global warming, are likely to affect the spatio-temporal dynamics of bird assemblages along tropical elevational gradients.
KW  - Birds
KW  - Seasons
KW  - Meteorology
KW  - Rain
KW  - Species diversity
KW  - Bird physiology
KW  - Flowers
KW  - Invertebrates
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/46562
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-465629
SN  - 1932-6203
N1  - Copyright: © 2018 Santillán et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
VL  - 13
IS  - (5): e0196179
SP  - 1
EP  - 15
PB  - PLoS
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  -