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Specificity of Studying Spatial and Typological Variations in Bird Assemblages across Certain Species Groups and Their Distribution (Using the Example of Corvidae)

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Contemporary Problems of Ecology Aims and scope

Abstract

The average numbers of birds recorded over the first half of summer (May 16–July 15) from 1880 to 2019 (with intervals predominantly since 1960) have been analyzed to identify the spatial typological structures and organization of bird assemblages in northern Eurasia. Overall, 352 researchers have been involved in collecting this material for 110 years. Data processing is carried out with multivariate statistics methods, including cluster analyses, qualitative linear approximation to the connectivity matrices, and the gradient and expert approaches. Therefore, the main spatial trends in corvid communities and the natural and anthropogenic regimes correlating with them have been identified. The relationship between the spatial variability of the assemblages of these birds and the heterogeneity of habitats has been assessed. The quasi-fractal patterns of spatial differentiation of communities are shown. The analysis of corvid groups based on factor classification give unsatisfactory results on approximation for spatial and typological variability in their assemblage abundance at the confined-landscape scale level, while it shows rather high informativity of classification of species abundance across all 8144 habitats. A satisfactory explanation of heterogeneity in communities of Corvidae was achieved only after averaging the values for abundances of bird species associated with landcover types. It is impossible to get an idea about them based on cluster analysis, while the gradient and expert (speculative) approaches followed by estimating the informativity of concepts may be considered acceptable for such generalizations. The techniques indicated above contribute to a higher informativity score incorporating representiveness by the average abundance values, which had sevenfold and threefold increases in terms of the explained dispersion and the multiple coefficients of correlation, respectively. In addition, structural classifications of species and, especially, territorial communities acquire a two-dimensional reticular (grid-based) structure. The formalized classification of corvid species is seven times and two times more informative about distribution similarity and assemblages, respectively, than the expert and speculative ideas.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are truly grateful to V.V. Dubatolov and B.N. Fomin for a critical review of the article and valuable comments to improve the publication. We also express our gratitude to both A.M. Dolgikh for making an expert assessment of the corvid species most prevalent at landfills in the surrounding area of the Amur River and V.V. Pronkevich for information on the large-billed crow numbers at the same sites. This article was written based on surveys supported by the FNI Fundamental Research Program for the State Academy of Sciences for 2021–2025, project no. FWGS–2021-002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630091, Novosibirsk, Russia

    Yu. S. Ravkin & I. N. Bogomolova

  2. Omsk State Pedagogy University, 644099, Omsk, Russia

    O. A. Odintsev

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  1. Yu. S. Ravkin
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  2. O. A. Odintsev
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  3. I. N. Bogomolova
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Correspondence to Yu. S. Ravkin or O. A. Odintsev.

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Translated by O. Zhiryakova

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Ravkin, Y.S., Odintsev, O.A. & Bogomolova, I.N. Specificity of Studying Spatial and Typological Variations in Bird Assemblages across Certain Species Groups and Their Distribution (Using the Example of Corvidae). Contemp. Probl. Ecol. 16, 19–29 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995425523010079

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