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More and more generalists: two decades of changes in the European avifauna

Le Viol, Isabelle ; Jiguet, Frederic ; Brotons, Lluis ; Herrando, Sergi ; Lindström, Åke LU orcid ; Pearce-Higgins, James W. ; Reif, Jiri ; Van Turnhout, Chris and Devictor, Vincent (2012) In Biology letters 8(5). p.780-782
Abstract
Biotic homogenization (BH) is a process whereby some species (losers) are systematically replaced by others (winners). While this process has been related to the effects of anthropogenic activities, whether and how BH is occurring across regions and the role of native species as a driver of BH has hardly been investigated. Here, we examine the trend in the community specialization index (CSI) for 234 native species of breeding birds at 10 111 sites in six European countries from 1990 to 2008. Unlike many BH studies, CSI uses abundance information to estimate the balance between generalist and specialist species in local assemblages. We show that bird communities are more and more composed of native generalist species across regions,... (More)
Biotic homogenization (BH) is a process whereby some species (losers) are systematically replaced by others (winners). While this process has been related to the effects of anthropogenic activities, whether and how BH is occurring across regions and the role of native species as a driver of BH has hardly been investigated. Here, we examine the trend in the community specialization index (CSI) for 234 native species of breeding birds at 10 111 sites in six European countries from 1990 to 2008. Unlike many BH studies, CSI uses abundance information to estimate the balance between generalist and specialist species in local assemblages. We show that bird communities are more and more composed of native generalist species across regions, revealing a strong, ongoing BH process. Our result suggests a rapid and non-random change in community composition at a continental scale is occurring, most likely driven by anthropogenic activities. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
habitat specialization, community specialization index, breeding bird, survey, macroecology
in
Biology letters
volume
8
issue
5
pages
780 - 782
publisher
Royal Society Publishing
external identifiers
  • wos:000308789200026
  • scopus:84866660585
  • pmid:22809721
ISSN
1744-9561
DOI
10.1098/rsbl.2012.0496
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c3d28a2f-168a-4cf2-b702-350e29be979e (old id 3189651)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:05:10
date last changed
2022-04-19 22:22:43
@article{c3d28a2f-168a-4cf2-b702-350e29be979e,
  abstract     = {{Biotic homogenization (BH) is a process whereby some species (losers) are systematically replaced by others (winners). While this process has been related to the effects of anthropogenic activities, whether and how BH is occurring across regions and the role of native species as a driver of BH has hardly been investigated. Here, we examine the trend in the community specialization index (CSI) for 234 native species of breeding birds at 10 111 sites in six European countries from 1990 to 2008. Unlike many BH studies, CSI uses abundance information to estimate the balance between generalist and specialist species in local assemblages. We show that bird communities are more and more composed of native generalist species across regions, revealing a strong, ongoing BH process. Our result suggests a rapid and non-random change in community composition at a continental scale is occurring, most likely driven by anthropogenic activities.}},
  author       = {{Le Viol, Isabelle and Jiguet, Frederic and Brotons, Lluis and Herrando, Sergi and Lindström, Åke and Pearce-Higgins, James W. and Reif, Jiri and Van Turnhout, Chris and Devictor, Vincent}},
  issn         = {{1744-9561}},
  keywords     = {{habitat specialization; community specialization index; breeding bird; survey; macroecology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{780--782}},
  publisher    = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
  series       = {{Biology letters}},
  title        = {{More and more generalists: two decades of changes in the European avifauna}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0496}},
  doi          = {{10.1098/rsbl.2012.0496}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}