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Drivers of compositional dissimilarity for native and alien birds: the relative roles of human activity and environmental suitability

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Abstract

We assessed the relative importance of human activity and environmental suitability as drivers of compositional dissimilarity of alien birds for 65 of the most populous cities of the Iberian Peninsula. We examined how these drivers relate to Zeta diversity (ζ) for alien Passeriformes and Psittaciformes. We performed the analysis using multiple orders of ζ, which provides insight on the role played by rare and common species in determining levels of dissimilarity. We also ran the analyses using the community of native Passeriformes as a phylogenetically close contrasting control. Our results showed that the proportion of urban area, a variable related to colonization and propagule pressure, had a strong influence on Psittaciformes but not on alien Passeriformes. This latter group showed to be primarily influenced by environmental factors, similarly to what was found for native Passeriformes. On other hand, human connectivity, as measured by distance through roads and railways seemed to play a significant role in shaping the compositional dissimilarity of alien Passeriformes, but not Psittaciformes. Regardless of the group analysed, the relative importance of the explanatory variables was similar for both rare and common species. Our findings highlight differences between the factors driving compositional dissimilarity for distinct groups of birds. While the emerging biogeography of Psittaciformes is mainly a reflection of distinctiveness in urban areas, alien Passeriformes are more strongly affected by the natural environment and thus their biogeography may increasingly resemble the one of their native counterparts.

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Acknowledgements

FA was funded through a post-doctoral grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, SFRH/BPD/115968/2016). PA is funded by ‘V Plan Propio de Investigación’ of the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain). LC is funded by the H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 fellowship No 752149. CC was funded by National Funds through FCT, I.P., under the programme of ‘Stimulus of Scientific Employment—Individual Support’ within the contract ‘CEECIND/02037/2017’. The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions to an earlier version, which greatly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infraestruturas de Portugal Biodiversity Chair, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CIBIO), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Fernando Ascensão

  2. Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Seville, Spain

    Fernando Ascensão & José L. Tella

  3. Department of Mathematical Sciences, Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, 7600, South Africa

    Guillaume Latombe

  4. Department of Biology, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, USA

    José D. Anadón

  5. Biology Program, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, USA

    José D. Anadón

  6. Department of Zoology, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Pedro Abellán

  7. Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment, Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London, London, UK

    Laura Cardador

  8. Department of Physical, Chemical and Natural Systems, University Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. de Utrera, km. 1, 41013, Seville, Spain

    Martina Carrete

  9. Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território - IGOT, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Branca Edmée Marques, 1600-276, Lisbon, Portugal

    César Capinha

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  1. Fernando Ascensão
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Correspondence to Fernando Ascensão.

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Ascensão, F., Latombe, G., Anadón, J.D. et al. Drivers of compositional dissimilarity for native and alien birds: the relative roles of human activity and environmental suitability. Biol Invasions 22, 1447–1460 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02196-7

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