High proportion of smaller ranged hummingbird species coincides with ecological specialization across the Americas

• Autor(a) principal: Sonne, Jesper
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Martín González, Ana M., Maruyama, Pietro Kiyoshi, Sandel, Brody S., Vizentin-Bugoni, Jeferson, Schleuning, Matthias, Abrahamczyk, Stefan, Alarcón, Ruben, Araujo, Andréa Cardoso de, Araújo, Francielle Paulina, Azevedo, Severino Mendes de, Baquero, Andrea C., COTTON, PETER A., Ingversen, Tanja Toftemark, Kohler, Glauco, Lara, Carlos, Las-Casas, Flor Maria Guedes, Machado, Adriana Oliveira, Machado, Caio Graco, Maglianesi, María Alejandra, Moura, Alan Cerqueira, Nogués-Bravo, David, Oliveira, Genilda M., Oliveira, Paulo E., Ornelas, J. F., Rodrigues, Licléia da Cruz, Rosero-Lasprilla, Liliana, Rui, Ana Maria, Sazima, Marlies And I., Timmermann, Allan, Varassin, Isabela Galarda, Wang, Zhiheng, Watts, Stella, Fjeldsã, Jon, Svenning, Jens Christian, Rahbek, Carsten, Dalsgaard, Bo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional do INPA
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/15836
• topic: Biogeography; Bird; Climate Conditions; Coexistence; Community Ecology; Environmental Gradient; Interspecific Interaction; Macroecology; Network Analysis; Niche; Quaternary; Range Size; Specialization; United States; Trochilidae; Angiosperm; Animals; Animals Dispersal; Bird; Central America; Climate; Ecosystem; North America; Physiology; South America; Symbiosis; Angiosperms; Animals Distribution; Animal; Birds; Central America; Climate; Ecosystem; North America; South America; Symbiosis

Ecological communities that experience stable climate conditions have been speculated to preserve more specialized interspecific associations and have higher proportions of smaller ranged species (SRS). Thus, areas with disproportionally large numbers of SRS are expected to coincide geographically with a high degree of community-level ecological specialization, but this suggestion remains poorly supported with empirical evidence. Here, we analysed data for hummingbird resource specialization, range size, contemporary climate, and Late Quaternary climate stability for 46 hummingbird–plant mutualistic networks distributed across the Americas, representing 130 hummingbird species (ca 40% of all hummingbird species). We demonstrate a positive relationship between the proportion of SRS of hummingbirds and community-level specialization, i.e. the division of the floral niche among coexisting hummingbird species. This relationship remained strong even when accounting for climate, furthermore, the effect of SRS on specialization was far stronger than the effect of specialization on SRS, suggesting that climate largely influences specialization through species’ range-size dynamics. Irrespective of the exact mechanism involved, our results indicate that communities consisting of higher proportions of SRS may be vulnerable to disturbance not only because of their small geographical ranges, but also because of their high degree of specialization. © 2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.