期刊
AUSTRAL ECOLOGY
卷 41, 期 3, 页码 316-327出版社
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/aec.12314
关键词
Australia; biotic homogenization; competition; conservation; despotic species; habitat modification
类别
In Australia, the role of noisy miners Manorina melanocephala in biotic homogenization of the avifauna has been well established in modified landscapes, and is listed as a threatening process under national conservation legislation. However, less is known about the effect of the congeneric and more widely distributed yellow-throated miner, M.flavigula. In this paper we investigate the relative roles of habitat loss and increased dominance by the yellow-throated miner in avian homogenization and species functional group decline. We examined bird community data collected from 368 woodland sites across three bioregions. For each site there was a local and a landscape scale measure of remnant vegetation cover. We used both multivariate and regression analysis to test the relative influence of yellow-throated miner abundance and vegetation on bird community composition. There was clear compositional change and homogenization of the avifauna where yellow-throated miners were present and vegetation cover was low. The abundance of 40 bird species was predicted by combinations of vegetation cover or yellow-throated miner abundance, and 31 of these regressions included the term yellow-throated miner. Of these, there was a negative relationship with 23 species, and 19 of these were insectivores or nectarivores. We postulate that the combination of clearing and yellow-throated miner abundance can interact to disrupt the ecological function of woodlands, by the depletion of insect- and nectar-feeding species and the disturbance to mixed feeding flocks. We propose future research objectives that include a continental-scale analysis of the determinants of yellow-throated miner overabundance, the numerical and geographical thresholds of their potential impacts, and the ecological consequences on both avifauna and the woodlands they inhabit.
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