Temporal and spatial variability in temperature and forest phenology as predictors of forest bird species distributions in Argentina.

OLAH, ASHLEY; RADELOFF, VOLKER C.; PIDGEON, ANNA M.; POLITI NATALIA

virtual

Congreso; International Ornithologists? Union (IOU),; 2022

International Ornithologists? Union (IOU),

Identifying areas likely to facilitate coexistence and/or persistence of many species is important for conservation planning. Spatial patterns of biodiversity are determined by climate, phenology, primary productivity, and habitat structure. Local areas with warmer average temperatures and greater spatial variability in temperature within proximity (i.e., due to complex topography) generally support higher species richness. Additionally, these areas may be more resilient to interannual variability, and buffer populations from extreme events. Species richness-environmental gradient relationships are often guild-specific. Thus, understanding how the distributions of many individual species respond to environmental variables is important information for effective biodiversity conservation. We aimed to assess how individual bird species distributions were explained by a suite of environmental variables, and to assess whether there were guild-specific trends in environmental determinants of species distributions. We created species distribution models for forest bird species in Argentina based on spatial and interannual heterogeneity in temperature and forest phenology, forest DBH, forest basal area, forest phenoclusters, topography, soils, and precipitation. We then identified which environmental variables were most strongly associated with individual species’ distribution models, and specific life history traits. We found that forest phenoclusters explained the greatest amount of variation in most species’ distributions regardless of life history strategy. Elevation was important for altitudinal migrants. For cavity nesting species, phenoclusters, elevation, and spatial heterogeneity in summer temperature were important. For carnivorous species, phenoclusters and spatial heterogeneity in summer temperature were important. Our results uncover probable general distribution-environmental relationships among species with diverse life history traits, however there is also variation that should not be ignored.