RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Latitudinal gradient in avian insectivory: complementary effects of climate, habitat and bird diversity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.01.19.524212
DO 10.1101/2023.01.19.524212
A1 Laura Schillé
A1 Elena Valdés-Correcher
A1 Frédéric Archaux
A1 Flavius Bălăcenoiu
A1 Mona Chor Bjørn
A1 Michal Bogdziewicz
A1 Thomas Boivin
A1 Manuela Branco
A1 Thomas Damestoy
A1 Maarten de Groot
A1 Jovan Dobrosavljević
A1 Mihai-Leonard Duduman
A1 Anne-Maïmiti Dulaurent
A1 Samantha Green
A1 Jan Grünwald
A1 Csaba Béla Eötvös
A1 Maria Faticov
A1 Pilar Fernandez-Conradi
A1 Elisabeth Flury
A1 David Funosas
A1 Andrea Galmán
A1 Martin M. Gossner
A1 Sofia Gripenberg
A1 Lucian Grosu
A1 Jonas Hagge
A1 Arndt Hampe
A1 Deborah Harvey
A1 Rick Houston
A1 Rita Isenmann
A1 Andreja Kavčič
A1 Mikhail V. Kozlov
A1 Vojtech Lanta
A1 Bénédicte Le Tilly
A1 Carlos Lopez Vaamonde
A1 Soumen Mallick
A1 Elina Mäntylä
A1 Anders Mårell
A1 Slobodan Milanović
A1 Márton Molnár
A1 Xoaquín Moreira
A1 Valentin Moser
A1 Anna Mrazova
A1 Dmitrii L. Musolin
A1 Thomas Perot
A1 Andrea Piotti
A1 Anna V. Popova
A1 Andreas Prinzing
A1 Ludmila Pukinskaya
A1 Aurélien Sallé
A1 Katerina Sam
A1 Nickolay V. Sedikhin
A1 Tanja Shabarova
A1 Ayco Tack
A1 Rebecca Thomas
A1 Karthik Thrikkadeeri
A1 Dragoș Toma
A1 Grete Vaicaityte
A1 Inge van Halder
A1 Zulema Varela
A1 Luc Barbaro
A1 Bastien Castagneyrol
YR 2023
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/21/2023.01.19.524212.abstract
AB Aim According to the Latitudinal Biotic Interaction Hypothesis (LBIH), the general increase in biodiversity towards lower latitudes can be partially explained by an increase in the intensity of biotic interactions. While LBIH received some support for plant-herbivores interactions, much less is known about how higher trophic levels may contribute to shape biotic interactions across latitudinal gradients. We hypothesized that the diversity of insectivorous birds increases towards lower latitude, leading to higher predation rates on insect herbivores.Location Europe.Taxon Insectivorous birds and pedunculate oaks.Methods We deployed plasticine caterpillars in 138 oak trees in 47 sites along a 19° latitudinal gradient in Europe to quantify bird insectivory through predation attempts. In addition, we used passive acoustic monitoring to (i) characterize the acoustic diversity of surrounding soundscapes; and (ii) infer both taxonomic and functional diversity of insectivorous birds from recordings.Results The functional diversity of insectivorous birds increased towards lower latitude. Bird predation increased with latitude, forest cover and bird acoustic diversity but decreased with mean annual temperature and functional richness of insectivorous birds. Contrary to our predictions, latitudinal clines in bird predation attempts were not directly mediated by changes in insectivorous bird diversity or acoustic diversity, but latitude and habitat still had independent effects on predation attempts.Main conclusions Our study does not fully support the predictions of the LBIH of more biotic interactions southwards and advocates for better accounting for activity and abundance of insectivorous birds when studying the large-scale variation in insect-tree interactions.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.