Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists.
Background The ratio of habitat generalists to specialists in birds has been suggested as a good indicator of ecosystem changes due to e.g. climate change and other anthropogenic perturbations. Most studies focusing on this functional component of biodiversity originate, however, from temperate regi...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:07d17bdffb8048208734f4914732bcdf 2023-05-15T14:55:46+02:00 Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. Vasiliy Sokolov Dorothée Ehrich Nigel G Yoccoz Alexander Sokolov Nicolas Lecomte 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050335 https://doaj.org/article/07d17bdffb8048208734f4914732bcdf EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23239978/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050335 https://doaj.org/article/07d17bdffb8048208734f4914732bcdf PLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 12, p e50335 (2012) Medicine R Science Q article 2012 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050335 2022-12-31T05:07:09Z Background The ratio of habitat generalists to specialists in birds has been suggested as a good indicator of ecosystem changes due to e.g. climate change and other anthropogenic perturbations. Most studies focusing on this functional component of biodiversity originate, however, from temperate regions. The Eurasian Arctic tundra is currently experiencing an unprecedented combination of climate change, change in grazing pressure by domestic reindeer and growing human activity. Methodology/principal findings Here we monitored bird communities in a tundra landscape harbouring shrub and open habitats in order to analyse bird habitat relationships and quantify habitat specialization. We used ordination methods to analyse habitat associations and estimated the proportions of specialists in each of the main habitats. Correspondence Analysis identified three main bird communities, inhabiting upland, lowland and dense willow shrubs. We documented a stable structure of communities despite large multiannual variations of bird density (from 90 to 175 pairs/km(2)). Willow shrub thickets were a hotspot for bird density, but not for species richness. The thickets hosted many specialized species whose main distribution area was south of the tundra. Conclusion/significance If current arctic changes result in a shrubification of the landscape as many studies suggested, we would expect an increase in the overall bird abundance together with an increase of local specialists, since they are associated with willow thickets. The majority of these species have a southern origin and their increase in abundance would represent a strengthening of the boreal component in the southern tundra, perhaps at the expense of species typical of the subarctic zone, which appear to be generalists within this zone. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Subarctic Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS ONE 7 12 e50335 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Vasiliy Sokolov Dorothée Ehrich Nigel G Yoccoz Alexander Sokolov Nicolas Lecomte Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Background The ratio of habitat generalists to specialists in birds has been suggested as a good indicator of ecosystem changes due to e.g. climate change and other anthropogenic perturbations. Most studies focusing on this functional component of biodiversity originate, however, from temperate regions. The Eurasian Arctic tundra is currently experiencing an unprecedented combination of climate change, change in grazing pressure by domestic reindeer and growing human activity. Methodology/principal findings Here we monitored bird communities in a tundra landscape harbouring shrub and open habitats in order to analyse bird habitat relationships and quantify habitat specialization. We used ordination methods to analyse habitat associations and estimated the proportions of specialists in each of the main habitats. Correspondence Analysis identified three main bird communities, inhabiting upland, lowland and dense willow shrubs. We documented a stable structure of communities despite large multiannual variations of bird density (from 90 to 175 pairs/km(2)). Willow shrub thickets were a hotspot for bird density, but not for species richness. The thickets hosted many specialized species whose main distribution area was south of the tundra. Conclusion/significance If current arctic changes result in a shrubification of the landscape as many studies suggested, we would expect an increase in the overall bird abundance together with an increase of local specialists, since they are associated with willow thickets. The majority of these species have a southern origin and their increase in abundance would represent a strengthening of the boreal component in the southern tundra, perhaps at the expense of species typical of the subarctic zone, which appear to be generalists within this zone. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vasiliy Sokolov Dorothée Ehrich Nigel G Yoccoz Alexander Sokolov Nicolas Lecomte |
author_facet |
Vasiliy Sokolov Dorothée Ehrich Nigel G Yoccoz Alexander Sokolov Nicolas Lecomte |
author_sort |
Vasiliy Sokolov |
title |
Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. |
title_short |
Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. |
title_full |
Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. |
title_fullStr |
Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of Yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. |
title_sort |
bird communities of the arctic shrub tundra of yamal: habitat specialists and generalists. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050335 https://doaj.org/article/07d17bdffb8048208734f4914732bcdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Subarctic Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Subarctic Tundra |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 12, p e50335 (2012) |
op_relation |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23239978/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050335 https://doaj.org/article/07d17bdffb8048208734f4914732bcdf |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050335 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
e50335 |
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