Tom P. Bregman

TL;DR: It is concluded that land-use change in tropical systems is likely to disrupt biotic processes, including seed dispersal and the control of insect herbivores, and offer general guidelines for the minimum size of fragments required to prevent the collapse of key ecosystem processes in sensitive regions.

TL;DR: The results establish the minimum dimensionality required for avian functional traits to predict subtle variation in trophic niches and provide a global framework for exploring the origin, function and conservation of bird diversity.

TL;DR: Variation of hand-wing index in over 10,000 bird species is examined, finding that it is higher in migratory and non-territorial species, and lower in the tropics, and also a strong predictor of geographical range size.

TL;DR: The AVONET dataset as discussed by the authors contains comprehensive functional trait data for all birds, including six ecological variables, 11 continuous morphological traits, and information on range size and location, from 90,020 individuals of 11,009 extant bird species sampled from 181 countries.

TL;DR: The findings suggest that local extinctions caused by the loss and degradation of tropical forest are non-random with respect to functional traits, thus disrupting the network of trophic interactions regulating seed dispersal by forest birds and herbivory by insects, with important implications for the structure and resilience of human-modified tropical forests.