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Land cover change homogenizes functional and phylogenetic diversity within and among African savanna bird assemblages

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Abstract

Context

Conversion of natural ecosystems into anthropogenic landscapes can result in biotic homogenization, whereby differences in species composition among sites are diminished through colonization or local extinction. This may reduce the resilience of assemblages to further perturbation and the range or quality of ecosystem services they offer.

Objectives

We investigate how land cover change has altered patterns of compositional, functional and phylogenetic diversity of avian communities in a typical African savanna. We investigate if there has been selection for closely-related or functionally similar species with increasing land use intensity and how this has affected alpha and beta components of diversity.

Methods

We conducted point counts over 2 years in four distinct land cover types (urban, rural, protected and a transitional matrix), representing a gradient of land cover change. We compared alpha and beta phylogenetic, compositional and functional diversity between sites to assess whether land cover change has homogenized avian communities.

Results

While alpha diversity tended to be higher in transformed land cover types (urban, rural and matrix), measures of beta diversity among sites within these types were significantly lower than beta diversity within the protected area. Furthermore, assemblages in transformed areas were functionally and phylogenetically more similar than expectation based on a null model, particularly in the urban area.

Conclusions

While transformed areas may support higher diversity than natural habitats inside the protected area, human impacts are filtering for species with specific traits and thus homogenizing functional and phylogenetic diversity within and between sites in our study system.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa and the University of Cape Town for providing funding for this project. The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this manuscript are that of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NRF of South Africa or the University of Cape Town. Thank you to R. van Mazjik and G. A. Verboom for kindly sharing R scripts. Thank you to M. Jere for helping to design the map.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Eleanor A. Weideman & Robert L. Thomson

  2. Fynbos Node, South African Environmental Observation Network, Private Bag X7, Rhodes Drive, 7735, Newlands, South Africa

    Jasper A. Slingsby

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation (SEEC), University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Jasper A. Slingsby

  4. Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Bernard T. W. Coetzee

  5. Scientific Services, Organization for Tropical Studies, Skukuza, 1350, South Africa

    Bernard T. W. Coetzee

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  1. Eleanor A. Weideman
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Correspondence to Eleanor A. Weideman.

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Weideman, E.A., Slingsby, J.A., Thomson, R.L. et al. Land cover change homogenizes functional and phylogenetic diversity within and among African savanna bird assemblages. Landscape Ecol 35, 145–157 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-019-00939-z

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