Effects of anthropogenic disturbances on bird functional diversity: A global meta-analysis

Beta diversity patterns of bats in the Atlantic Forest: How does the scale of analysis affect the importance of spatial and environmental factors?

ABSTRACT A major barrier to advancing ornithology is the systemic exclusion of professionals from the Global South. A recent special feature, Advances in Neotropical Ornithology, and a shortfalls analysis therein, unintentionally followed a long-standing pattern of highlighting individuals, knowledge, and views from the Global North, while largely omitting the perspectives of people based within the Neotropics. Here, we review current strengths and opportunities in the practice of Neotropical ornithology. Further, we discuss problems with assessing the state of Neotropical ornithology through a northern lens, including discovery narratives, incomplete (and biased) understanding of history and advances, and the promotion of agendas that, while currently popular in the north, may not fit the needs and realities of Neotropical research. We argue that future advances in Neotropical ornithology will critically depend on identifying and addressing the systemic barriers that hold back ornithologists who live and work in the Neotropics: unreliable and limited funding, exclusion from international research leadership, restricted dissemination of knowledge (e.g., through language hegemony and citation bias), and logistical barriers. Moving forward, we must examine and acknowledge the colonial roots of our discipline, and explicitly promote anti-colonial agendas for research, training, and conservation. We invite our colleagues within and beyond the Neotropics to join us in creating new models of governance that establish research priorities with vigorous participation of ornithologists and communities within the Neotropical region. To include a diversity of perspectives, we must systemically address discrimination and bias rooted in the socioeconomic class system, anti-Blackness, anti-Brownness, anti-Indigeneity, misogyny, homophobia, tokenism, and ableism. Instead of seeking individual excellence and rewarding top-down leadership, institutions in the North and South can promote collective leadership. In adopting these approaches, we, ornithologists, will join a community of researchers across academia building new paradigms that can reconcile our relationships and transform science. Spanish and Portuguese translations are available in the Supplementary Material. How to Cite Soares, L., K. L. Cockle, E. Ruelas Inzunza, J. T. Ibarra, C. I. Miño, S. Zuluaga, E. Bonaccorso, J. C. Ríos-Orjuela, F. A. Montaño-Centellas, J. F. Freile, et al. (2023). Neotropical ornithology: Reckoning with historical assumptions, removing systemic barriers, and reimagining the future. Ornithological Applications 125:duac046. LAY SUMMARY Research conducted by ornithologists living and working in Latin America and the Caribbean has been historically and systemically excluded from global scientific paradigms, ultimately holding back ornithology as a discipline. To avoid replicating systems of exclusion in ornithology, authors, editors, reviewers, journals, scientific societies, and research institutions need to interrupt long-held assumptions, improve research practices, and change policies around funding and publication. To advance Neotropical ornithology and conserve birds across the Americas, institutions should invest directly in basic field biology research, reward collective leadership, and strengthen funding and professional development opportunities for people affected by current research policies. Resumen Una barrera importante para el avance de la ornitología es la exclusión sistémica de los profesionales del Sur Global. Una colección especial de artículos publicada recientemente, Advances in Neotropical Ornithology, incluye un análisis de deficiencias que involuntariamente sigue un largo patrón de destacar a las personas, el conocimiento y las opiniones de los EEUU y Europa (Norte Global) mientras que omite en gran medida las perspectivas de personas basadas en el Neotrópico. Aquí revisamos las fortalezas y oportunidades actuales en la práctica de la ornitología neotropical. Además, discutimos el problema de evaluar el estado de la ornitología neotropical a través de una visión del norte, incluida la propagación de narrativas de descubrimiento, una imagen incompleta (y sesgada) de su historia y avances, y la promoción de preguntas, herramientas y enfoques que, si bien son populares actualmente en el norte, no necesariamente encajan en la agenda y realidades de la investigación neotropical. Argumentamos que los avances futuros en la ornitología neotropical dependerán críticamente de identificar y abordar las deficiencias sistémicas que frenan a los ornitólogos que viven y trabajan en el Neotrópico: financiamiento limitado y poco confiable, exclusión del liderazgo de la investigación internacional, difusión restringida del conocimiento (por ejemplo, a través de la hegemonía del idioma y el sesgo de citación) y barreras logísticas. En el futuro, debemos examinar y reconocer las raíces coloniales de nuestra disciplina y promover agendas de investigación, capacitación y conservación que sean explícitamente anticoloniales. Invitamos a nuestros colegas dentro y fuera del Neotrópico a unirnos en la creación de nuevos modelos de gobernanza que establezcan prioridades de investigación con una participación vigorosa de ornitólogos y otras partes interesadas de la región neotropical. Para incluir una diversidad de perspectivas, debemos abordar sistémicamente la discriminación y el sesgo arraigados en el sistema de clases socioeconómicas, el racismo anti-negro, anti-mestizo y anti-indígena, la misoginia, la homofobia, la inclusión simbólica y el capacitismo. En lugar de buscar la excelencia individual y recompensar el liderazgo de arriba hacia abajo, las instituciones del norte y del sur pueden promover el liderazgo colectivo. Al adoptar estos enfoques, los ornitólogos nos uniremos a una comunidad de investigadores de toda la academia en la construcción de nuevos paradigmas que reconcilien nuestras relaciones y transformen la ciencia. Hay traducciones al español y al portugués en el material suplementario.

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Neotropical ornithology: Reckoning with historical assumptions, removing systemic barriers, and reimagining the future

Ecological restoration is a traditional option for recovering biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Birds perform pollination, seed dispersal, and pest-control services, which catalyze increases in habitat structure. Habitat complexity changes bird composition, but there is little evidence of its effects on bird functional diversity in Neotropical restorations. We tested whether bird functional diversity and composition respond to increased habitat complexity. Point-counts were performed (January-December 2015) in an area undergoing restoration (536 ha) in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil, in restorations with less and more structured vegetation and pastures and forest-fragments. The functional bird traits considered were diet, habitat, biomass, environmental sensitivity, and foraging strata. Increased habitat complexity was evaluated using plant characteristics (exotic grass, canopy, herbaceous cover, and diameter at breast height). A total of 172 bird species (5% endemic; 12% migratory) were recorded. Increased vegetation structure in both restored sites and forest-fragments drove a reorganization and addition of functional bird traits, which positively influenced functional richness, dispersion, and evenness. Shifts in plant-characteristics rearranged bird functional traits (diet-forest-dependence and diet-strata-foraging). The rapid development of vegetation structure is a key factor for restoration because it provides additional habitat for semi-dependent forest birds and enhances resilience and sustainability in new man-made forests.

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Improvement of vegetation structure enhances bird functional traits and habitat resilience in an area of ongoing restoration in the Atlantic Forest.

The impact of downsizing protected areas: How a misguided policy may enhance landscape fragmentation and biodiversity loss

A decline in species number often occurs after forest fragmentation and habitat loss, which usually results in the loss of ecological functions and a reduction in functional diversity in the forest fragments. However, it is uncertain whether these lost ecological functions are consistently maintained throughout continuous forests, and so the importance of these functions in continuous forests remains unknown. Point counts were used to assess both the taxonomic and functional diversity of specialist and generalist birds from sampling in a continuous primary forest compared with forest fragments in order to investigate the responses of these groups to forest fragmentation. We also measured alpha and beta diversity. The responses of specialists and generalists were similar when we assessed all bird species but were different when only passerines were considered. When examining passerines we found lower total taxonomic beta diversity for specialists than for generalists in the continuous forest, while taxonomic beta diversity was higher in the fragmented forest and similar between bird groups. However, total functional beta-diversity values indicated clearly higher trait regularity in continuous forest for specialists and higher trait regularity in fragments for generalists. Specialists showed significantly higher functional alpha diversity in comparison with generalists in the continuous forest, while both groups showed similar values in fragments. In passerines, species richness and alpha functional diversity of both specialist and generalist were explained by forest connectivity; but, only fragment size explained those parameters for specialist passerines. We suggest that considering subsets of the community with high similarity among species, as passerines, provides a better tool for understanding responses to forest fragmentation. Due to the regularity of specialists in continuous forest, their lost could highly affect functionality in forest fragments.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.5204

Insights on the functional composition of specialist and generalist birds throughout continuous and fragmented forests.

The delineation of unique areas in biodiversity is crucial for conservation planning. However, identification of distinct biotas is a challenging task. In this study, we use an objective analytical process to test if bird and plant species composition of three different forest formation in the Atlantic forest Biome is sufficiently distinct to merit the recognition of ecoregions. We also evaluated how current climatic and spatial factors shape the distribution of plants and birds. Sampling localities were selected in three forest types of southern Brazil: mixed rain forest (MF), seasonal semi‐deciduous forest (SF) and dense rain forest (DF). The point‐centred quarter method and point counts were used to sample plants and birds respectively. Multivariate analyses were used to evaluate species composition, while the Rank Occupancy Abundance Profile was used to determine the association of bird species with each forest type. We used variation partitioning to determine which factors, that is climatic, spatial or tree species abundance (in the case of birds) better explained the distribution of plants and birds. A total of 176 tree species and 270 bird species were recorded. The bird species composition was sufficiently distinct among the three forest types, but the plant species composition was only distinct between DF and MF. Moreover, 61% of bird species were associated with only one forest type. This high association and the different species composition suggest that these forest types are sufficiently distinct to merit the recognition of ecoregions. Plant distribution was mainly affected by climatic variables, while bird distribution was mainly influenced by forest type and less so by climatic variables. Our data suggest that all three forest types should be conserved, but conservation strategies are urgent in MF where only 0.39% of its original cover is under protection.

Distributions of birds and plants in ecoregions: Implications for the conservation of a neotropical biodiversity hotspot

Along a distance gradient from a given river, two types of habitat can be recognized: natural river edge and forest interior, each one with its own vegetation characteristics and dynamics. In a continuous area of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, we investigated (1) if bird communities are different between a riverbank of a small stream and an inland forest habitat; (2) if the species of the river edge habitat are the ones that persist in the most in forest fragments after deforestation of a continuous forest; (3) if the river edge habitat species are those that are less sensitive to forest fragmentation. It is expected that there are differences in the bird communities and the occupancy of some species between the two habitats. We allocated 16 sampling points in each of the habitats and sampled the birds by point counts with a short radius of 30 m. Results suggest that there is a significant difference between the composition of the bird communities of the river edge and forest interior habitats, although the species richness is similar. Six species were more likely to occupy the river edge and 14 species had a greater probability of occupancy in the forest interior. Species associated with the river edge habitat (15 species) tend not to be sensitive to forest fragmentation (12 species). In this study, we demonstrated that river-border species of continuous forest areas form a significant part of the bird communities that persist in small forest fragments, with intense edge effect. This shows that not all forest edge species are the result of the colonization from open areas. Congruently, species that occupy the most distant areas from the river vegetation in a continuous forest are those more sensitive to forest fragmentation.

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Barbara Rocha Arakaki Lindsey

Papers

Insights on the functional composition of specialist and generalist birds throughout continuous and fragmented forests.

Distributions of birds and plants in ecoregions: Implications for the conservation of a neotropical biodiversity hotspot

Bird species that occupy river edge in continuous forest tend to be less sensitive to forest fragmentation