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Functional and phylogenetic diversity of birds in urban habitat patches in Macao, China.

DING Zhi-Feng, LIANG Jian-Chao, FENG Yong-Jun, LIU Jin-Cheng, HU Hui-Jian*   

  1. (Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou 510260, China).
  • Online:2020-04-10 Published:2020-04-10

Abstract: Understanding how communities assemble is a central and fundamental question inecology, which is critical for explaining species coexistence and maintenance of species diversity, and for improving biodiversity conservation practice and policy. Compared with species diversity (species richness and other species diversity indices), functional and phylogenetic diversity consider the differences of species in traits and evolutionary history that closely correlated with ecosystem services and functioning, providing insights into the mechanisms driving community clustering or overdispersion. We used line transects to collect data on bird species richness andabundance in five urban habitat patches in Macao, China (Ecological Zone I: STQ;Lu’niaolin: LNL; tidal flat wetland nearby Saimachang: SMC; tidal flat wetland nearby port: GZ; mangrove forest under Lianhuaqiao: LHQ) from May 2014 to January 2017. Surveys were conducted during the breeding season in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and during the wintering season in 2014, 2015, 2017, and were repeated for 14 times. Species diversity was estimated as species richness and abundance, while functional and phylogenetic diversity were estimated using functional richness (FRic) and Faith’s PD, respectively. Abundance weighted mean pairwise functional distance (MFD) and mean pairwise phylogenetic distance (MPD) were calculated to evaluate changes in the functional and phylogenetic structure of bird community, respectively. The results were as follows: (1) A total of 98 bird species were recorded, belonging to 14 orders and 32 families. Passerines and Ardeidae had the highest species richness (15 and 11 species, respectively). In addition,Egretta garzetta was the most abundant species (849 individuals). (2) Bird species richness (PD and MPD) was the highest in STQ (species richness was 68), whereas abundance was the highest in LHQ (2940 individuals), FRic and MFD was the highest in SMC. (3) Patch area was important factor in explaining the richness, abundance, FRic and PD of birds, whereas vegetation area and tidal flat area had important effects on MFD and MPD, respectively. (4) SES.MFD were significantly clustered in GZ and LHQ, and SES.MPD were significantly clustered in LNL and LHQ, indicating that functional clustering occurred in GZ and LHQ might be a result of environmental filtering. Taken together, our findings suggest that the differences in habitat characters lead to changes in community assembly mechanisms, which is difficult to provide by just considering species diversity. Our results highlight that the necessity of integrating multiple dimension of biodiversity.

Key words: salt stress, maximum electron transport rate, mesophyll conductance, maximum carboxylation rate, FvCB model