Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bat and bird diversity along independent gradients of latitude and tree composition in European forests

Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Cite this article

Abstract

Species assemblages are shaped by local and continental-scale processes that are seldom investigated together, due to the lack of surveys along independent gradients of latitude and habitat types. Our study investigated changes in the effects of forest composition and structure on bat and bird diversity across Europe. We compared the taxonomic and functional diversity of bat and bird assemblages in 209 mature forest plots spread along gradients of forest composition and vertical structure, replicated in 6 regions spanning from the Mediterranean to the boreal biomes. Species richness and functional evenness of both bat and bird communities were affected by the interactions between latitude and forest composition and structure. Bat and bird species richness increased with broadleaved tree cover in temperate and especially in boreal regions but not in the Mediterranean where they increased with conifer abundance. Bat species richness was lower in forests with smaller trees and denser understorey only in northern regions. Bird species richness was not affected by forest structure. Bird functional evenness increased in younger and denser forests. Bat functional evenness was also influenced by interactions between latitude and understorey structure, increasing in temperate forests but decreasing in the Mediterranean. Covariation between bat and bird abundances also shifted across Europe, from negative in southern forests to positive in northern forests. Our results suggest that community assembly processes in bats and birds of European forests are predominantly driven by abundance and accessibility of feeding resources, i.e., insect prey, and their changes across both forest types and latitudes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

References

  • Ampoorter E, Baeten L, Koricheva J, Vanhellemont M, Verheyen K (2014) Do diverse overstoreys induce diverse understoreys? Lessons learnt from an experimental-observational platform in Finland. For Ecol Manag 318:206–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baeten L, Verheyen K, Wirth C, Bruelheide H, Bussotti F, Finér L, Jaroszewicz B, Selvi F, Valladares F, Allan E, Ampoorter E, Auge H, Avăcăriei D, Barbaro L, Bărnoaiea I, Bastias C, Bauhus J, Beinhoff C, Benavides R, Benneter A, Berger S, Berthold F, Boberg J, Bonal D et al (2013) A novel comparative research platform designed to determine the functional significance of tree species diversity in European forests. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 15:281–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbaro L, Giffard B, Charbonnier Y, van Halder I, Brockerhoff EG (2014) Bird functional diversity enhances insectivory at forest edges: a transcontinental experiment. Divers Distrib 20:149–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates D, Maechler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw 67(1):1–48. doi:10.18637/jss.v067.i01

  • Berger-Tal O, Berger-Tal R, Korine C, Holderied MW, Fenton MB (2008) Echolocation calls produced by Kuhl’s pipistrelles in different flight situations. J Zool 274:59–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Björkman C, Larsson S (1991) Pine sawfly defence and variation in host plant resin acids: a trade-off with growth. Ecol Entomol 16:283–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonthoux S, Balent G (2012) Point count duration: 5 minutes are sufficient to model the distribution of bird species and study the structure of communities in a French landscape. J Ornithol 153:491–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brändle M, Brandl R (2001) Species richness of insects and mites on trees: expanding Southwood. J Anim Ecol 70:491–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charbonnier Y, Gaüzère P, van Halder I, Nezan J, Barnagaud JY, Jactel H, Barbaro L (2016) Deciduous trees increase bat diversity at stand and landscape scales in mosaic pine plantations. Land Ecol 31:291–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cisneros LM, Fagan ME, Willig MR (2015) Effects of human-modified landscapes on taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic dimensions of bat biodiversity. Divers Distrib 21:523–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke A, Gaston KJ (2006) Climate, energy and diversity. Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 273:2257–2266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cruz J, Sarmento P, Rydevik G, Rebelo H, White PCL (2016) Bats like vintage: managing exotic eucalypt plantations for bat conservation in a Mediterranean landscape. Anim Conserv 19:53–64

  • Dietz C, von Helversen O, Nill D (2009) Bats of Britain. A & C Black, Europe and Northwest Africa

    Google Scholar 

  • Duchamp JE, Swihart RK (2008) Shifts in bat community structure related to evolved traits and features of human-altered landscapes. Landsc Ecol 23:849–860

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eglington SM, Brereton TM, Tayleur CM, Noble D, Risely K, Roy DB, Pearce-Higgins JW (2015) Patterns and causes of covariation in bird and butterfly community structure. Landsc Ecol 30:1461–1472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans KL, Warren PH, Gaston KJ (2005) Species-energy relationships at the macroecological scale: a review of the mechanisms. Biol Rev 80:1–25

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ferger SW, Schleuning M, Hemp A, Howell KM, Böhning-Gaese K (2014) Food resources and vegetation structure mediate climatic effects on species richness of birds. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 23:541–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuentes-Montemayor E, Goulson D, Cavin L, Wallace JM, Park KJ (2013) Fragmented woodlands in agricultural landscapes: the influence of woodland character and landscape context on bats and their insect prey. Agric Ecosyst Environ 172:6–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giffard B, Corcket E, Barbaro L, Jactel H (2012) Bird predation enhances tree seedling resistance to insect herbivores in contrasting forest habitats. Oecologia 168:415–424

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hanspach J, Fischer J, Ikin K, Stott J, Law BS (2012) Using trait-based filtering as a predictive framework for conservation: a case study of bats on farms in southeastern Australia. J Appl Ecol 49:842–850

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hillebrand H, Bennett DM, Cadotte MW (2008) Consequences of dominance: a review of evenness effects on local and regional ecosystem processes. Ecology 89:1510–1520

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huntley B, Green RE, Collingham YC, Willis SG (2007) A climatic atlas of European breeding birds. Lynx, Barcelona

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbert AH (2004) Species-energy relationships and habitat complexity in bird communities. Ecol Lett 7:714–720

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ikin K, Barton PS, Stirnemann I, Stein JR, Michael D, Crane M, Okada S, Lindenmayer DB (2014) Multi-scale associations between vegetation cover and woodland bird communities across a large agricultural region. Plos One 9:e97029

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jung K, Kaiser S, Böhm S, Nieschulze J, Kalko EKV (2012) Moving in three dimensions: effects of structural complexity on occurrence and activity of insectivorous bats in managed forest stands. J Appl Ecol 49:523–531

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalko EK, Schnitzler HU (1993) Plasticity in echolocation signals of European pipistrelle bats in search flight: implications for habitat use and prey detection. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 33:415–428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kissling WD, Sekercioglu CH, Jetz W (2012) Bird dietary guild richness across latitudes, environments and biogeographic regions. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 21:328–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klingbeil BT, Willig MR (2015) Bird biodiversity assessments in temperate forest: the value of point count versus acoustic monitoring protocols. Peer J 3:e973

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kozlov MV, Stańska M, Hajdamowicz I, Zverev V, Zvereva EL (2015a) Factors shaping latitudinal patterns in communities of arboreal spiders in northern Europe. Ecography 38:1026–1035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kozlov MV, Lanta V, Zverev V, Zvereva EL (2015b) Global patterns in background losses of woody plant foliage to insects. Global Ecol Biogeogr 24:1126–1135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laliberté E, Legendre P (2010) A distance-based framework for measuring functional diversity from multiple traits. Ecology 91:299–305

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee PY, Rotenberry JT (2005) Relationships between bird species and tree species assemblages in forested habitats of eastern North America. J Biogeogr 32:1139–1150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindenmayer D, Blanchard W, Tennant P, Barton P, Ikin K, Mortelliti A, Okada S, Crane M, Michael D (2015) Richness is not all: how changes in avian functional diversity reflect major landscape modification caused by pine plantations. Divers Distrib 21:836–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luck GW, Carter A, Smallbone L (2013) Changes in bird functional diversity across multiple land uses: interpretations of functional redundancy depend on functional group identity. Plos One 8:e63671

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Maas B, Karp DS, Bumrungsri S, Darras K, Gonthier D, Huang JCC, Lindell CA, Maine JJ, Mestre L, Michel NL, Morrison EB, Perfecto I, Philpott SM, Sekercio CH, Silva RM, Taylor PJ, Tscharntke T, Van Bael SA, Whelan CJ, Williams-Guill K (2015) Bird and bat predation services in tropical forests and agroforestry landscapes. Biol Rev. doi:10.1111/brv.12211

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mäntylä E, Klemola T, Haukioja E (2004) Attraction of willow warblers to sawfly-damaged mountain birches: novel function of inducible plant defences? Ecol Lett 7:915–918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason NWH, de Bello F, Mouillot D, Pavoine S, Dray S (2013) A guide for using functional diversity indices to reveal changes in assembly processes along ecological gradients. J Veg Sci 24:794–806

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moorman CE, Bowen LT, Kilgo JC, Sorenson CE, Hanula JL, Horn S, Ulyshen MD (2007) Seasonal diets of insectivorous birds using canopy gaps in a bottomland forest. J Field Ornithol 78:11–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mouillot D, Graham NAJ, Villéger S, Mason NWH, Bellwood DR (2013) A functional approach reveals community responses to disturbances. Trends Ecol Evol 28:167–177

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Müller J, Mehr M, Bässler C, Fenton M, Hothorn T, Pretzsch H, Klemmt HJ, Brandl R (2012) Aggregative response in bats: prey abundance versus habitat. Oecologia 169:673–684

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Müller J, Brandl R, Buchner J, Pretzsch H, Seifert S, Stratz C, Veith M, Fenton B (2013) From ground to above canopy-bat activity in mature forests is driven by vegetation density and height. For Ecol Manag 306:179–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Napal M, Garin I, Goiti U, Salsamendi E, Aihartza J (2010) Habitat selection by Myotis bechsteinii in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula. Ann Zool Fennici 47:239–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pautasso M, Gaston KJ (2005) Resources and global avian assemblage structure in forests. Ecol Lett 8:282–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petchey OL, Evans KL, Fishburn IS, Gaston KJ (2007) Low functional diversity and no redundancy in British avian assemblages. J Anim Ecol 76:977–985

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Proença VM, Pereira HM, Guilherme J, Vicente L (2010) Plant and bird diversity in natural forests and in native and exotic plantations in NW Portugal. Acta Oecol 36:219–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramos Pereira MJ, Palmeirim JM (2013) Latitudinal diversity gradients in New World bats: are they a consequence of niche conservatism? Plos One 8:e69245

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Razgour O, Hanmer J, Jones G (2011) Using multi-scale modelling to predict habitat suitability for species of conservation concern: the grey long-eared bat as a case study. Biol Conserv 144:2922–2930

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rey-Benayas JM, Galván I, Carrascal LM (2010) Differential effects of vegetation restoration in Mediterranean abandoned cropland by secondary succession and pine plantations on bird assemblages. For Ecol Manag 260:87–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ricklefs RE (2004) A comprehensive framework for global patterns in biodiversity. Ecol Lett 7:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russ J, Montgomery W (2002) Habitat associations of bats in Northern Ireland: implications for conservation. Biol Conserv 108:49–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speakman JR, Rydell J, Webb PI, Hayes JP, Hays GC, Hulbert IAR, McDevitt RM (2000) Activity patterns of insectivorous bats and birds in northern Scandinavia (69°N), during continuous midsummer daylight. Oikos 88:75–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stratford J, Sekercioglu CH (2015) Birds in forest ecosystems. In: Peh KSH, Corlett R, Bergeron Y (eds) Handbook of forest ecology. Routledge Press, London, pp 281–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilman D (1994) Competition and biodiversity in spatially structured habitats. Ecology 75:2–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whelan CJ, Sekercioglu CH, Wenny DG (2015) Why birds matter: from economic ornithology to ecosystem services. J Ornithol 156:227–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willig MR, Bloch CP (2006) Latitudinal gradients of species richness: a test of the geographic area hypothesis at two ecological scales. Oikos 112:163–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang J, Kissling WD, He FL (2013) Local forest structure, climate and human disturbance determine regional distribution of boreal bird species richness in Alberta, Canada. J Biogeogr 40:1131–1142

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to FunDivEurope site managers and field teams for assistance in fieldwork. We also thank Inge van Halder, Fabrice Vetillard and Bastien Castagneyrol for help and advice at various stages of this study. JYB received financial support from the CIRCE project under the AU Ideas program. The research reported here was conducted as part of the European FunDivEUROPE project, which received funding from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Program under the Grant Agreement No. 265171.

Author contribution statement

YC, LB, KV and HJ designed the study, YC, LB, JYB, EA and JN performed the field work, YC, LB and JYB analysed the data, YC, LB, JYB and HJ wrote the manuscript and all authors contributed to editing the final version.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. BIOGECO, INRA, Univ. Bordeaux, 33610, Cestas, France

    Yohan M. Charbonnier, Luc Barbaro, Julien Nezan & Hervé Jactel

  2. DYNAFOR, INPT-EI Purpan, INRA, Univ. Toulouse, 31320, Auzeville, France

    Luc Barbaro

  3. Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Biosciences, Aarhus University, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Jean-Yves Barnagaud

  4. Laboratoire Biogéographie et Ecologie des vertébrés-CNRS, EPHE, UM, SupAgro, IND, INRA, UMR 5175 CEFE, PSL Research University, 1919 route de Mende, Montpellier, France

    Jean-Yves Barnagaud

  5. Forest and Nature Lab, Department Forest and Water Management, Ghent University, Geraardsbergse Steenweg 267, 9090, Gontrode, Belgium

    Evy Ampoorter & Kris Verheyen

Authors
  1. Yohan M. Charbonnier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Luc Barbaro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jean-Yves Barnagaud
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Evy Ampoorter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Julien Nezan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Kris Verheyen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Hervé Jactel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hervé Jactel.

Additional information

Communicated by David N. Koons.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 58 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Charbonnier, Y.M., Barbaro, L., Barnagaud, JY. et al. Bat and bird diversity along independent gradients of latitude and tree composition in European forests. Oecologia 182, 529–537 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3671-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3671-9

Keywords

search

Navigation