Speaker
Description
Global changes in biodiversity and their drivers are a major focus of scientific research. Recent studies have shown that taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity can be combined to disentangle the drivers of community assembly. Due to their nature, islands are ideal biological model systems to study the effects of filters on diversity patterns. Although bird community assembly on islands are a popular subject of study, studies have been limited to single archipelagos or a few islands.
We used a comprehensive global dataset of 2719 islands and analysed the diversity of 4624 terrestrial breeding bird species. We calculated functional diversity as well as phylogenetic diversity and corrected both for species richness using null models. To analyse diversity patterns we used multivariate models.
We found a correlation between functional and phylogenetic diversity in all biogeographical regions. However, in regions with strong anthropogenic influences, functional and phylogenetic diversity values were more clustered than would be expected from species richness. Thus, dispersal, environmental and anthropogenic filters show strong effects that vary between biogeographical realms.
Our results show strong regional effects on community assembly and highlight the importance of the interplay between different filters which a combined analysis of phylogenetic and functional diversity can disentangle.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
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