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126 results for “tropical birds”
Data from: Habitat fragmentation differentially shapes neutral and immune gene variation in a tropical bird species
<p>Habitat fragmentation is a major cause of biodiversity loss, responsible for an alteration of intraspecific patterns of neutral genetic diversity and structure. Although neutral genetic variation can be informative for demographic inferences, it may be a poor predictor of adaptive genetic diversity and thus of the consequences of habitat fragmentation on selective evolutionary processes. In this context, we contrasted patterns of genetic diversity and structure of neutral loci (microsatellites) and immune genes (i.e., toll-like receptors) in an understorey bird species, the wedge-billed woodcreeper <i>Glyphorynchus spirurus</i>. The objectives were (1) to investigate forest fragmentation effects on population genetic diversity, (2) to disentangle the relative role of demography (genetic drift and migration) and selection, and (3) to assess whether immunogenetic patterns could be associated with variation of ectoparasite (i.e., ticks) pressures. Our results revealed an erosion of neutral genetic diversity and a substantial genetic differentiation among fragmented populations, resulting from a decrease in landscape connectivity and leading to the divergence of distinct genetic pools at a small spatial scale. Patterns of genetic diversity observed for TLR4 and TLR5 were concordant with neutral genetic patterns, whereas those observed for TLR3 and TLR21 were discordant. This result underlines that the dominant evolutionary force shaping immunogenetic diversity (genetic drift vs. selection) may be different depending on loci considered. Finally, tick prevalence was higher in fragmented environments. We discussed the hypothesis that pathogen selective pressures may contribute to maintain adaptive genetic diversity despite the negative demographic effect of habitat fragmentation on neutral genetic diversity.</p>
Data from: Contrasting impacts of land use change on phylogenetic and functional diversity of tropical forest birds
1.Biodiversity conservation strategies increasingly target maintaining evolutionary history and the resilience of ecosystem function, not just species richness (SR). This has led to the emergence of two metrics commonly proposed as tools for decision making: phylogenetic diversity (PD) and functional diversity (FD). Yet the extent to which they are interchangeable remains poorly understood. 2.We explore shifts in and relationships between FD and PD of bird communities across a disturbance gradient in Borneo, from old-growth tropical forest to oil palm plantation. 3.We show a marked decline in PD, and an increase in phylogenetic mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD) from forest to oil palm, in line with declining SR across the gradient. However, phylogenetic mean pairwise distance (MPD) is constrained by forest logging more than by conversion to oil palm, taking account of SR. 4.The decline in FD across the gradient is less severe than in PD, with all metrics indicating relatively high trait diversity in oil palm despite low SR, although functional redundancy is much reduced. Accounting for SR, levels of functional over- or under-dispersion of bird communities are strongly coupled to habitat disturbance level rather than to any equivalent phylogenetic metric. 5.Policy Implications. We suggest that while phylogenetic diversity (PD) is an improvement on species richness as a proxy for functional diversity (FD), conservation decisions based on PD alone cannot reliably safeguard maximal FD. Thus, PD and FD are related but still complementary. Priority setting exercises should use these metrics in combination to identify conservation targets.
Data from: Body condition indices predict reproductive success but not survival in a sedentary, tropical bird
Body condition may predict individual fitness because those in better condition have more resources to allocate towards improving their fitness. However, the hypothesis that condition indices are meaningful proxies for fitness has been questioned. Here, we ask if intraspecific variation in condition indices predicts annual reproductive success and survival. We monitored a population of Neochmia phaeton (crimson finch), a sedentary, tropical passerine, for reproductive success and survival over four breeding seasons, and sampled them for commonly used condition indices: mass adjusted for body size, muscle and fat scores, packed cell volume, hemoglobin concentration, total plasma protein, and heterophil to lymphocyte ratio. Our study population is well suited for this research because individuals forage in common areas and do not hold territories such that variation in condition between individuals is not confounded by differences in habitat quality. Furthermore, we controlled for factors that are known to impact condition indices in our study population (e.g., breeding stage) such that we assessed individual condition relative to others in the same context. Condition indices that reflect energy reserves predicted both the probability of an individual fledging young and the number of young produced that survived to independence, but only during some years. Those that were relatively heavy for their body size produced about three times more independent young compared to light individuals. That energy reserves are a meaningful predictor of reproductive success in a sedentary passerine supports the idea that energy reserves are at least sometimes predictors of fitness. However, hematological indices failed to predict reproductive success and none of the indices predicted survival. Therefore, some but not all condition indices may be informative, but because we found that most indices did not predict any component of fitness, we question the ubiquitous interpretation of condition indices as surrogates for individual quality and fitness.
Data from: Reciprocal specialization in multihost malaria parasite communities of birds: a temperate-tropical comparison
How specialization of consumers with respect to resources varies with respect to latitude is poorly understood. Coexistence of many species in the tropics might be possible only if specialization also increases. Alternatively, lower average abundance of more diverse biotic resources in the tropics might force consumers to become more generalized foragers. We examine levels of reciprocal specialization in an antagonistic system—avian malaria—to determine whether the number of host species used and/or parasite lineages harbored differ between a temperate and a tropical assemblage. We evaluate the results of network analysis, which can incorporate both bird and parasite perspectives on specialization in one quantitative index, in comparison to null models. Specialization was significantly greater in both sample sites than predicted from null models. We found evidence for lower per-host species parasite diversity in temperate compared to tropical birds. However, specialization did not differ between the tropical and temperate sites from the parasite perspective. We supplemented the network analysis with estimates of specialization that incorporate phylogenetic relationships of associates and found no differences between sites. Thus, our analyses indicate that specialization within an antagonistic host-parasite (resource-consumer) system varies little between tropical and temperate localities.
Data from: Rapid plastic breeding response to rain matches peak prey abundance in a tropical savannah bird
1. Changes in climate are shifting the timing of life cycle events in the natural world. Compared to northern-temperate areas, these effects are relatively poorly understood in tropical and southern regions, where there is limited information on how timing of breeding and food availability are affected by climatic factors, and where patterns of breeding activity are more unpredictable within and between years. 2. Combining a new statistical modelling approach with 5 years of continuous individual-based monitoring of a monsoonal tropical insectivorous bird, we quantified (i) the proximate climatic drivers at two trophic levels: timing of breeding and abundance of arthropod prey; (ii) the effect of climate variation on reproductive output and (iii) the role of individual plasticity. 3. Rainfall was identified as the main determinant of phenology at both trophic levels. Throughout the year, likelihood of egg laying increased very rapidly in response to even small amounts of rain during the preceding 0-3 weeks. Adult body mass and male sperm storage also increased rapidly after rain, suggesting high breeding preparedness. Additionally, females were flexible, since they were more likely to nest if their previous attempt was longer ago and unsuccessful. Arthropod abundance also increased after rainfall, but more slowly, with a peak around 10 weeks. Therefore, the peak food availability coincided with the presence of dependent fledglings. 4. Fitness benefits of nesting after more rain appeared to be linked to offspring quantity rather than quality: nest attempts following higher rainfall produced larger clutches, but showed no improvement in nestling mass or relative fledging success. The response of clutch size to rainfall was plastic, since repeated sampling showed that individual females laid larger clutches after more rain, possibly mediated by improved body mass. 5. Rapid, individually flexible breeding in response to rainfall and slower increase in arthropod abundance also as a response to rainfall, might buffer insectivorous species living in tropical seasonal environments from climate-change induced phenological trophic mismatches.
Data from: Basal metabolism in tropical birds: latitude, altitude, and the "pace of life"
1. Life history varies across latitudes, with the 'pace of life' being 'slower' in tropical regions. Because life history is coupled to energy metabolism via allocation tradeoffs and links between performance capacity and energy use, low metabolic intensity is expected in tropical animals. Low metabolism has been reported for lowland tropical birds, but it is unclear if this is due to 'slow' life history or to a warm, stable environment. 2. We measured Basal Metabolic Rates (BMR) of 253 bird species across a 2.6 km altitude gradient in Peru. We predicted higher BMR at high altitude due to lower temperatures leading to elevated thermoregulatory costs. We also tested for BMR differences between widely separated tropical regions (Peru and Panama), and between tropical- and temperate-breeding birds. 3. We found no effect of altitude on BMR in Peruvian species and no difference in BMR between Peruvian and Panamanian birds, suggesting that BMR in Neotropical birds is consistent and independent of environmental temperature. In a dataset encompassing more than 500 species, tropical birds had significantly lower BMR than temperate-breeding birds. 4. In contrast to several recent analyses, we found higher BMR in passerine birds than in non-passerines, independent of breeding latitude. 5. Breeding latitude affects BMR, but diversity in avian life history within and between temperate and tropical regions may explain some of the residual variation in BMR after accounting for body mass and breeding latitude. Future studies of links between life history, metabolism, and environmental factors might benefit from examining these variables within individual species as well as across broad geographic contrasts.
Data from: Primary dermal fibroblasts and pectoralis muscle show similar patterns of oxidative stress in tropical and temperate birds despite differing life-histories
<p><span>Tropical birds have a "slower pace of life," with lower rates of whole-animal metabolism, smaller metabolically active organs, and lower cellular metabolic rates than their temperate counterparts. Oxidative stress is a physiological mechanism that may dictate differing life-histories such as those found between tropical and temperate birds. <span>Oxygen is required to make ATP, resulting in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS)</span>. If left unchecked, ROS can structurally alter proteins, induce mutations in DNA, and damage structural lipids. To combat accumulating oxidative damage, organisms have evolved an elaborate and costly antioxidant system that serves to sequester ROS before they wreak cellular havoc. We examined whether oxidative stress would differ between tropical and temperate birds. We used isolated primary dermal fibroblasts and pectoralis muscle tissue for measurements. We measured four aspects of oxidative stress in primary fibroblasts – reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration, ROS production, mitochondrial content, and lipid peroxidation (LPO) damage. We found no significant differences in the four variables between temperate and tropical birds.. In muscle tissue, we measured catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, peroxyl and hydroxyl scavenging capacity, and LPO damage. We found that peroxyl scavenging capacity was significantly higher in tropical birds compared with temperate birds. </span></p>
Data from: Ecological and environmental predictors of escape among birds on a large tropical island
<p><span><span><span><span>Ecological and environmental traits can influence avian escape behaviour but most data underpinning our current understanding relates to continental and temperate areas and species. We conducted a phylogenetically controlled comparative analysis of flight-initation distance (FID) against a variety of environmental, behavioural and life-history attributes for Sri Lankan birds (202 species; n = 2540). As with other studies, body mass was positively associated with FID, and longer FIDs occurred in areas where human population density was lower. We also found that the effect of human population density was more pronounced in larger birds. Birds that were in groups when approached tended to have longer FIDs. Unlike the findings of other comparative analyses, based mostly on continental, temperate populations, most other ecological variables did not feature in the best models predicting FID (time of year, breeding system, clutch size, habitat, migratory behaviour, development [altricial/precocial], elevation and diet). Thus, some associations (body mass and exposure to humans) may be universal, while others may not manifest themselves among tropical avifaunas. Further tropical datasets are required to confirm truly universal associations of environmental and ecological attributes and escape distances among birds.</span></span></span></span></p>
Taxonomic and functional homogenization of farmland birds along an urbanization gradient in a tropical megacity
<p>Urbanization is a major driver of land use change and biodiversity decline. While most of the ongoing and future urbanization hot spots are located in the Global South, the impact of urban expansion on agricultural biodiversity and associated functions and services in these regions has widely been neglected. Additionally, most studies assess biodiversity responses at local scale (α-diversity), however, ecosystem functioning is strongly determined by compositional and functional turnover of communities (β-diversity) at regional scales. We investigated taxonomic and functional β-diversity of farmland birds across three seasons on 36 vegetable farms spread along a continuous urbanization gradient in Bangalore, a South Indian megacity. Increasing amount of grey area in the farm surroundings was the dominant driver affecting β-diversity and resulting in taxonomic and functional homogenization of farmland bird communities. Functional diversity losses were higher than expected from species declines (i.e. urbanization acts as an environmental filter), with particular losses of functionally important groups such as insectivores of crop pests. Moreover, urbanization reduced functional redundancy of bird communities, which may further weaken ecosystems resilience to future perturbations. Our study underscores urbanization as a major driver of taxonomic and functional homogenization of species communities in agricultural systems, potentially threatening crucial ecosystem services for food production.</p>
Supplementary material 1 from: Monteiro M, Reino L, Melo M, Beja P, Bastos-Silveira C, Ramos M, Rodrigues D, Neves IQ, Consciência S, Figueira R (2016) The collection of birds from São Tomé and Príncipe at the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). ZooKeys 600: 155-167. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.600.7899
Species lists referred in Tables 1 and 2 showing correspondence between scientific and common names between IOC and BirdLife Internaction/IUCN nomenclatures : Explanation note: Nomenclatural differences between International Ornithological Council and BirdLife International/IUCN lists (2016) for endemic species and endemic subspecies of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Data from: Isotopic niches of tropical birds reduced by anthropogenic impacts: A 100-year perspective
<p>The intensification of land use changes in tropical forests during the 20<sup>th</sup> century, mainly caused by deforestation for agricultural uses, had an overwhelming influence on bird assemblages. However, how these historical anthropogenic changes have impacted the habitat use and diet of tropical birds is poorly known. Stable isotope analysis (<i>δ</i><sup>13</sup>C and <i>δ</i><sup>15</sup>N) can be useful in this regard since it provides information not only on the habitat and food resource use but also insights on the dietary niche of species. Here, we aimed to evaluate whether centenary anthropogenic impacts, mainly caused by changes in landscape composition, have affected the resource and habitat use and isotopic niche width of Neotropical birds in a region that comprises two biodiversity hotspots — the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado in southeastern Brazil. We found that the niche width of all bird guilds (frugivore, granivore, insectivore, nectarivore, and omnivore) was largely reduced (28–70%) from the twentieth century until recently. This niche width reduction was likely associated with historical anthropogenic impacts (e.g., fragmentation, forest loss and change in agricultural practices), which are responsible for the decrease in the availability of habitat and food resources. Moreover, the mean values of <i>δ</i><sup>15</sup>N decreased over the years in all bird guilds, which might be attributed to the expansion of agricultural areas and the increase in the use of synthetic nitrogen-based fertilizers. All the analyzed species, even though some of them are diet and habitat generalists, were strongly influenced by centenary anthropogenic actions. Our results show the consequences of human-induced changes in land use on the diet and habitat use of tropical birds that persist in fragmented landscapes, which might compromise their long-term survival, and provide useful information to the conservation strategies of bird assemblages in modern landscapes.</p>
Figure 1 in Diet of tropical insectivorous birds in lowland Malaysian rainforest
Figure 1. Map of Krau Wildlife Reserve, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. The reserve is represented by light grey, forest areas surrounding the reserve by dark grey, and non-forest areas by white. Map adapted from Zakaria et al. (2014).
Timing is everything: Acoustic niche partitioning in two tropical wet forest bird communities
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>When acoustic signals sent from individuals overlap in frequency and time, acoustic interference and signal masking may occur. Under the acoustic niche hypothesis (ANH), signaling behavior has evolved to partition acoustic space and minimize overlap with other calling individuals through selection on signal structure and/or the sender's ability to adjust the timing of signals. Alternately, under the acoustic clustering hypothesis, there is potential benefit to convergence and synchronization of the structural or temporal characteristics of signals in the avian community, and organisms produce signals that overlap more than would be expected by chance. Interactive communication networks may also occur, where species living together are more likely to have songs with convergent spectral and or temporal characteristics. In this study, we examine the fine-scale use of acoustic space in montane tropical wet forest bird communities in Costa Rica and Hawai'i. At multiple recording stations in each community, we identified the species associated with each recorded signal, measured observed signal overlap, and used null models to generate random distributions of expected signal overlap. We then compared observed vs. expected signal overlap to test predictions of the acoustic niche and acoustic clustering hypotheses. We found a high degree of overlap in the signal characteristics (frequency range) of species in both Costa Rica and Hawai'i, however, as predicted under ANH, species significantly reduced observed overlap relative to the random distribution through temporal partitioning. There was little support for acoustic clustering or the prediction of the network hypothesis that species segregate across the landscape based on the frequency range of their vocalizations. These findings constitute strong support that there is competition for acoustic space in these signaling communities, and this has resulted primarily in temporal partitioning of the soundscape.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Data from: Forest-associated understorey birds persist in agroforestry orchards within tropical rubber and oil palm landscapes
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Data from: Isotopic niches of tropical birds reduced by anthropogenic impacts: A 100-year perspective
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Data from: Tropical tree diversity mediates foraging and predatory effects of insectivorous birds
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Data from: Genomic footprints of adaptation in a cooperatively breeding tropical bird across a vegetation gradient
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Data from: Body condition indices predict reproductive success but not survival in a sedentary, tropical bird
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Data from: Contrasting impacts of land use change on phylogenetic and functional diversity of tropical forest birds
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Data from: Habitat specialization predicts genetic response to fragmentation in tropical birds
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
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