Between-island compositional dissimilarity of avian communities

Abstract

Compositional dissimilarity patterns of biotic communities can vary among different types of insular systems and among taxa with different dispersal abilities. In this work we examined compositional dissimilarity patterns of four avian groups, namely birds of prey, waterbirds, seabirds and landbirds, in various insular systems around the world. Compositional dissimilarity of avian communities was calculated for 25 presence-absence matrices compiled from the literature. We used generalized linear mixed-effects models to check for differences in between-island compositional dissimilarity among the aforementioned avian groups that differ in their dispersal abilities, as well as between two different types of insular systems, oceanic and continental shelf. In agreement with our original hypothesis, landbirds which have relatively poorer dispersal abilities than birds of prey and waterbirds, exhibit higher between-island compositional dissimilarity compared to these two avian groups. On the contrary, seabirds present a deviation from the expected pattern, since they show higher between-island compositional dissimilarity compared to landbirds, even though they also have better dispersal abilities than landbirds, which can be explained by the relatively irregular occurrence of proper breeding habitats among islands for this avian group. Island type (oceanic or continental shelf) does not appear to affect between-island compositional dissimilarity of avian communities. Distance, area and elevation differences among islands are positively related to compositional dissimilarity. In conclusion, compositional dissimilarity of avian communities differs between avian groups but cannot always be associated with differences in the dispersal ability among these groups. © 2014, The Ecological Society of Japan.