Climate and habitat types drive avian communities of the Anatolian Diagonal

Date

2025-11-03

Author

Gurol, Ilgin Ertan
Ambarlı, Didem
Zeydanli, Ugur

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

57
views

0
downloads

Cite This

Avian diversity is experiencing alarming declines across the globe. Still, several biodiversity hotspots remain to be studied in terms of avian communities. At the convergence of three global biodiversity hotspots lies the Anatolian Diagonal of T & uuml;rkiye, whose bird communities are underexplored. This study is the first assessment of its avian communities in relation to environmental variables and bird functional traits. We made use of bird data from 782 standardized transect counts, 12 environmental variables, and 14 bird functional traits. We analyzed the data using clustering algorithm, indicator species analysis, and ordinations. Hierarchical clustering resulted in 7 communities based on bird data. Ordinations demonstrated that avian communities were predominantly shaped by climate, land-use patterns, vegetation productivity (NDVI), and habitat diversity. Avian community of steppic landscapes was associated with lower precipitation and higher mean diurnal range, and its species exhibited greater body mass and hand-wing index, such as Melanocorypha bimaculata. Community of homogeneous highlands, indicated by Eremophila alpestris, corresponded to lower temperatures and reduced precipitation seasonality. Agricultural landscapes with a high human footprint index supported a relatively distinct community, whose species preferred human-modified habitats. Habitat mosaics with riparian vegetation supported species characterized by a piscivorous diet and scavenging properties. The forest community harbored species with smaller body mass and hand-wing index, including Serinus serinus, and was often associated with frugivory. To conserve the avian communities of the region, it is necessary to prevent the degradation and fragmentation of steppes, forests, and riparian zones that support habitat diversity.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/116901

Collections

Department of Biology, Article