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Responses to the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) invasion differ between habitat specialists and generalists in central European forest birds

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Abstract

Biological invasions are among the most important threats to global biodiversity. However, bird species differ in their ability to resist the invasions, and it is thus important to investigate which species’ traits account for their sensitivity to the invasions’ consequences. Here we focused on predictors of such sensitivity by using central European birds in oak forests invaded by the exotic black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). We performed a detailed mapping of bird occurrence on plots located in the native oak stands and the invaded stands, respectively, controlling for stands’ age. Using multivariate analysis, we quantified bird species’ reliance on the native versus invaded forest stands. In the next step, we tested the hypotheses explaining species’ position along this gradient. We predicted that the species more closely associated with the invaded forest stands will be (1) habitat generalists and (2) species with fast life history strategies. The phylogenetic generalized least squares analysis showed that only the first prediction was supported. Moreover, species’ habitat specialization significantly affected differences in species’ abundance between the invaded and native forests: habitat generalists were more abundant in the black locust stands than in the oak stands, which was not the case of habitat specialists. Our study implies that the spread of invasive plants may contribute to the frequently reported replacement of specialist species by habitat generalists in local bird communities.

Zusammenfassung

Bei mitteleuropäischen Waldvögeln unterscheidet sich die Reaktion auf die Invasion der Robinie ( Robinia pseudoacacia ) zwischen Habitatspezialisten und –generalistenBiologische Invasionen gehören zu den bedeutendsten Gefahren für die weltweite Biodiversität. Vogelarten unterscheiden sich jedoch in ihrer Fähigkeit, den Invasionen zu widerstehen, weshalb es wichtig ist zu untersuchen, welche Eigenschaften von Arten ihre Anfälligkeit für Folgen von Invasionen beeinflussen. Hier haben wir uns auf Prädiktoren solcher Anfälligkeit konzentriert, indem wir mitteleuropäische Vögel in Eichenwäldern mit eingewanderten Robinien (Robinia pseudoacacia) betrachtet haben. Wir haben das Vogelvorkommen in einheimischen Eichenbeständen und invadierten Beständen im Detail kartiert, unter Berücksichtigung des Alters der Bestände. Mit Hilfe einer multivariaten Analyse haben wir die Abhängigkeit der Vogelarten von den einheimischen bzw. invadierten Beständen quantifiziert. Im nächsten Schritt haben wir die Hypothesen getestet, welche die Position von Arten entlang dieses Gradienten erklären. Wir haben vorhergesagt, dass die stärker mit den invadierten Beständen assoziierten Arten (i) Habitatgeneralisten sein und (ii) schnelle life history-Strategien haben sollten. Die phylogenetische generalisierte Analyse der kleinsten Quadrate stützte lediglich die erste Hypothese. Zudem hatte die Habitatspezialisierung der Arten einen signifikanten Einfluss auf die unterschiedliche Abundanz der Arten in den invadierten und einheimischen Beständen: Habitatgeneralisten waren in den Robinienbeständen häufiger als in den Eichenbeständen, was für Habitatspezialisten nicht der Fall war. Unsere Studie deutet darauf hin, dass die Ausbreitung invasiver Pflanzen zu der in lokalen Vogelgemeinschaften häufig beobachteten Ersetzung spezialisierter Arten durch Habitatgeneralisten beitragen könnte.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (Grant No. 14-21715S to JR) and the Grant Agency of Charles University (Grant No. 1570314 to JH). We thank Martin Hejda and Tomáš Kadlec for helpful discussions on the topic. Comments of an anonymous referee greatly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Benátská 2, 128 01, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    Jan Hanzelka & Jiří Reif

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  1. Jan Hanzelka
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  2. Jiří Reif
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Correspondence to Jan Hanzelka.

Additional information

Communicated by T. Gottschalk.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 3.

Table 3 Characteristics of bird species observed on the study plots
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Appendix 2

See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Phylogenetic tree of the observed bird species compiled according to Jetz et al. (2012) by using http://www.birdtree.org

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Hanzelka, J., Reif, J. Responses to the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) invasion differ between habitat specialists and generalists in central European forest birds. J Ornithol 156, 1015–1024 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-015-1231-4

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