期刊
ACTA OECOLOGICA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
卷 102, 期 -, 页码 -出版社
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.actao.2019.103500
关键词
Andes; Avian diversity patterns; Ecuador; Mountain biodiversity; Structural equation modelling
类别
资金
- German Research Foundation (DFG) [PAK 825/1]
Climate and vegetation structure are important predictors of biodiversity along mountain slopes. The drivers of elevational biodiversity gradients are not yet fully resolved. For instance, there is little understanding of how direct and indirect effects of elevation shape species communities along mountain slopes. In this study, we identify the main drivers of bird diversity along an elevational gradient spanning 2000 m in the Ecuadorian Andes. We simultaneously tested the direct and indirect effects of elevation, temperature, precipitation and vegetation structure on overall bird diversity and on frugivorous and insectivorous birds, using structural equation models (SEMs). We found that elevation was mostly indirectly associated with bird diversity, mediated via abiotic (i.e., temperature, precipitation) and biotic (i.e., vegetation structure) factors. We found consistent positive effects of temperature and vegetation structure and negative effects of precipitation on overall bird diversity and on frugivorous and insectivorous birds. In addition, elevation was directly, positively associated with insectivore richness and abundance, but not with that of frugivores. Our results show that climatic factors and vegetation structure jointly shape the richness of bird communities on tropical mountains. However, other factors, such as biotic interactions or different evolutionary histories of lowland and highland communities, may additionally contribute to elevational patterns in bird diversity. Thus, species communities across tropical mountain slopes are shaped by a multitude of abiotic and biotic factors that need to be studied simultaneously for a mechanistic understanding of patterns in biodiversity.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据