0000000000240692
AUTHOR
Vincent Devictor
Biotic homogenisation in bird communities leads to large‐scale changes in species associations
The impact of global change on biodiversity is commonly assessed in terms of changes in species distributions, community richness and community composition. Whether and how much associations between species are also changing is much less documented. In this study, we quantify changes in large-scale patterns of species associations in bird communities in relation to changes in species composition. We use network approaches to build three community-aggregated indices reflecting complementary aspects of species association networks. We characterise the spatio–temporal dynamics of these indices using a large-scale and high-resolution dataset of bird co-abundances of 109 species monitored for 17…
Do large‐scale associations in birds imply biotic interactions or environmental filtering?
Aim There has been a wide interest in the effect of biotic interactions on species' occurrences and abundances at large spatial scales, coupled with a vast development of the statistical methods to study them. Still, evidence for whether the effects of within-trophic-level biotic interactions (e.g. competition and heterospecific attraction) are discernible beyond local scales remains inconsistent. Here, we present a novel hypothesis-testing framework based on joint dynamic species distribution models and functional trait similarity to dissect between environmental filtering and biotic interactions. Location France and Finland. Taxon Birds. Methods We estimated species-to-species association…
Linking species interactions with phylogenetic and functional distance in European bird assemblages at broad spatial scales
Aim: Understanding the relative contribution of different species interactions in shaping community assembly has been a pivotal aim in community ecology. Biotic interactions are acknowledged to be important at local scales, although their signal is assumed to weaken over longer distances. We examine the relationship between positive, neutral and negative pairwise bird abundance distributions and the phylogenetic and functional distance between these pairs after first controlling for habitat associations. Location: France and Finland. Time period: 1984 to 2011 (Finland), 2001 to 2012 (France). Major Taxa studied: Birds. Methods: We used results from French and Finnish land bird monitoring pr…
Titmice are a better indicator of bird density in Northern European than in Western European forests
Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Population sizes of many birds are declining alarmingly and methods for estimating fluctuations in species’ abundances at a large spatial scale are needed. The possibility to derive indicators from the tendency of specific species to co-occur with others has been overlooked. Here, we tested whether the abundance of resident titmice can act as a general ecological indicator of forest bird density in European forests. Titmice species are easily identifiable and have a wide distribution, which makes them potentially useful ecological indicators. Migratory birds often use information on the densit…
Impacts of agricultural intensification on bird communities: New insights from a multi-level and multi-facet approach of biodiversity
International audience; Following the multiplicity of studies dealing with the effects of agricultural intensification on bird diversity, one of the lessons drawn is that these effects depend on both the taxonomic group, the component of diversity, the aspect of intensification, and the spatial scale. This often leads to disparate results among studies suggesting that the investigation of agriculture-biodiversity relationships suffers from scale-dependence, information redundancy, non-linearity problems, and thus, unpredictability.Here, we propose a multi-scale and multi-facet approach to clarify the impacts of agricultural intensification on biodiversity and possible mitigating actions. Ou…
Disentangling the latitudinal and altitudinal shifts in community composition induced by climate change: The case of riparian birds
11 pages; International audience; Aim: This study investigates whether, and how, the composition of riparian bird communities has been affected by climate warming and habitat change. Although these two forces act separately, their respective contributions are rarely examined. Moreover, while the response of a given community may be a function of latitude and altitude, most studies have focused on these gradients separately. Riparian ecosystems are an opportunity to investigate community change along latitudinal and elevational gradients.Location: France, three major rivers (the Doubs, the Allier and the Loire)Taxon: Birds.Methods: Drawing upon bird community monitoring data over a period of…
Linking species interactions with phylogenetic and functional distance in European bird assemblages at broad spatial scales
Aim Understanding the relative contribution of different species interactions in shaping community assembly has been a pivotal aim in community ecology. Biotic interactions are acknowledged to be important at local scales, although their signal is assumed to weaken over longer distances. We examine the relationship between positive, neutral and negative pairwise bird abundance distributions and the phylogenetic and functional distance between these pairs after first controlling for habitat associations. Location France and Finland. Time period 1984 to 2011 (Finland), 2001 to 2012 (France). Major Taxa studied Birds. Methods We used results from French and Finnish land bird monitoring program…
Biotic homogenisation in bird communities leads to large-scale changes in species associations
AbstractAimThe impact of global change on biodiversity is commonly assessed in terms of changes in species distributions, community richness and community composition. Whether and how much associations between species, i.e. the degree of correlation in their spatial co-occurrence, are also changing is much less documented and mostly limited to local studies of ecological networks. In this study, we quantify changes in large-scale patterns of species associations in bird communities in relation to changes in species composition.LocationFrance.Time period2001-2017.Major taxa studiedCommon breeding birds.MethodsWe use network approaches to build three community-aggregated indices reflecting co…
Why we will accept your paper in Biological Conservation?
As the Editor in Chief of Biological Conservation, one of the leading journals of the field, I will outline the major directions of the journal and provide future authors with a tool box to help them with their submission. What is the scope of the journal? Is biological conservation the right target for my paper? What are the key messages to keep in mind when preparing my manuscript for this journal? Is their any specific type of findings that should be promoted or avoided to maximize the probability of having my paper accepted? I thought about these questions both as an author and as an editor and I want to share and discuss this experience of the publication process in conservation. peerR…