4.4 Article

Ecological release and insular shifts in avian morphological traits in the Caribbean

Journal

ORNITHOLOGY
Volume 138, Issue 3, Pages -

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/ornithology/ukab026

Keywords

ecological release; invasive species; island biogeography; morphology; species richness

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Funding

  1. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant [RGPIN 4038/2017]
  2. Clayton H. Riddell Endowment Fund of the University of Manitoba

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The study found strongest support for the ecological release hypothesis, but each of the other hypotheses also received some level of support. This suggests that ecological release, predation pressure from mongoose, and climate may all interact to influence morphological adaptations of birds to local conditions in the Caribbean.
We compared support for 3 hypotheses that might explain observed morphological variation among islands of 4 species of Caribbean land birds: ecological release from competition and predation pressure, predation pressure from 1 novel predator species (small Indian mongoose, Herpestes auropunctatus), and climate. We measured wing chord, tarsus length, bill length, and mass of Bananaquits (Coereba flaveola), Black-faced Grassquits (Tiaris bicolor), Lesser Antillean Bullfinches (Loxigilla noctis), and Common Ground Doves (Columbina passerina) in Grenada, 2015-2017, and combined these measures with data from 23 other Caribbean islands collated from academic papers and researchers, for a total sample size of 6,518 individuals. We found the strongest support for the ecological release hypothesis, but each of our hypotheses received some support, suggesting that ecological release from competition, predation pressure from mongoose, and climate may all interact to influence morphological adaptations of birds to local conditions in the Caribbean.

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