Macroecological signals of species interactions in the Danish avifauna

TY - JOUR

T1 - Macroecological signals of species interactions in the Danish avifauna

AU - Gotelli, N.J.

AU - Graves, Christopher R.

AU - Rahbek, C.

PY - 2010/3/16

Y1 - 2010/3/16

N2 - The role of intraspecific and interspecific interactions in structuring biotic communities at fine spatial scales is well documented, but the signature of species interactions at coarser spatial scales is unclear. We present evidence that species interactions may be a significant factor in mediating the regional assembly of the Danish avifauna. Because >95% of breeding species (n = 197) are migratory, we hypothesized that dispersal limitation would not be important and that breeding distributions would largely reflect resource availability and autecological habitat preferences. Instead, we detected a striking pattern of spatial segregation between ecologically similar species at two spatial scales with a suite of null models that factored in the spatial distribution of habitats in Denmark as well as population size and biomass of each species. Habitat utilization analyses indicated that community-wide patterns of spatial segregation could not be attributed to the patchy distribution of habitat or to gross differences in habitat utilization among ecologically similar species. We hypothesize that, when habitat patch size is limited, conspecific attraction in concert with interspecific territoriality may result in spatially segregated distributions of ecologically similar species at larger spatial scales. In the Danish avifauna, the effects of species interactions on community assembly appear pervasive and can be discerned at grain sizes up to four orders of magnitude larger than those of individual territories. These results suggest that species interactions should be incorporated into species distribution modeling algorithms designed to predict species occupancy patterns based on environmental variables

AB - The role of intraspecific and interspecific interactions in structuring biotic communities at fine spatial scales is well documented, but the signature of species interactions at coarser spatial scales is unclear. We present evidence that species interactions may be a significant factor in mediating the regional assembly of the Danish avifauna. Because >95% of breeding species (n = 197) are migratory, we hypothesized that dispersal limitation would not be important and that breeding distributions would largely reflect resource availability and autecological habitat preferences. Instead, we detected a striking pattern of spatial segregation between ecologically similar species at two spatial scales with a suite of null models that factored in the spatial distribution of habitats in Denmark as well as population size and biomass of each species. Habitat utilization analyses indicated that community-wide patterns of spatial segregation could not be attributed to the patchy distribution of habitat or to gross differences in habitat utilization among ecologically similar species. We hypothesize that, when habitat patch size is limited, conspecific attraction in concert with interspecific territoriality may result in spatially segregated distributions of ecologically similar species at larger spatial scales. In the Danish avifauna, the effects of species interactions on community assembly appear pervasive and can be discerned at grain sizes up to four orders of magnitude larger than those of individual territories. These results suggest that species interactions should be incorporated into species distribution modeling algorithms designed to predict species occupancy patterns based on environmental variables

KW - null models

KW - assembly rules

KW - interspecific territoriality

KW - conspecific social attraction

KW - allee affect

KW - INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION

KW - HABITAT SELECTION

KW - CLIMATE-CHANGE

KW - BIRDS

KW - COMMUNITIES

KW - CONSEQUENCES

KW - WARBLERS

KW - TERRITORIALISM

KW - DISTRIBUTIONS

KW - ORGANIZATION

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.0914089107

DO - 10.1073/pnas.0914089107

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 20194760

SN - 0027-8424

VL - 107

SP - 5030

EP - 5035

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

IS - 11

ER -