Titmice are a better indicator of bird density in Northern European than in Western European forests
Kajanus, M. H., Forsman, J. T., Vollstädt, M. G. R., Devictor, V., Elo, M., Lehikoinen, A., Mönkkönen, M., Thorson, J. T., & Kivelä, S. M. (2022). Titmice are a better indicator of bird density in Northern European than in Western European forests. Ecology and Evolution, 12(2), Article e8479. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8479
Published in
Ecology and EvolutionAuthors
Date
2022Discipline
Ekologia ja evoluutiobiologiaResurssiviisausyhteisöEcology and Evolutionary BiologySchool of Resource WisdomCopyright
© 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Population sizes of many birds are declining alarmingly and methods for estimating fluctuations in species’ abundances at a large spatial scale are needed. The possibility to derive indicators from the tendency of specific species to co-occur with others has been overlooked. Here, we tested whether the abundance of resident titmice can act as a general ecological indicator of forest bird density in European forests. Titmice species are easily identifiable and have a wide distribution, which makes them potentially useful ecological indicators. Migratory birds often use information on the density of resident birds, such as titmice, as a cue for habitat selection. Thus, the density of residents may potentially affect community dynamics. We examined spatio-temporal variation in titmouse abundance and total bird abundance, each measured as biomass, by using long-term citizen science data on breeding forest birds in Finland and France. We analyzed the variation in observed forest bird density (excluding titmice) in relation to titmouse abundance. In Finland, forest bird density linearly increased with titmouse abundance. In France, forest bird density nonlinearly increased with titmouse abundance, the association weakening toward high titmouse abundance. We then analyzed whether the abundance (measured as biomass) of random species sets could predict forest bird density better than titmouse abundance. Random species sets outperformed titmice as an indicator of forest bird density only in 4.4% and 24.2% of the random draws, in Finland and France, respectively. Overall, the results suggest that titmice could act as an indicator of bird density in Northern European forest bird communities, encouraging the use of titmice observations by even less-experienced observers in citizen science monitoring of general forest bird density.
...
Publisher
John Wiley & SonsISSN Search the Publication Forum
2045-7758Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/104235075
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Additional information about funding
Luonnontieteiden ja TekniikanTutkimuksen Toimikunta, Grant/Award Number: 275606 and 314833; Kvantum Institute, University of Oulu; Koneen SäätiöLicense
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
Large‐scale long‐term passive‐acoustic monitoring reveals spatio‐temporal activity patterns of boreal bats
Kotila, Miika; Suominen, Kati M.; Vasko, Ville V.; Blomberg, Anna S.; Lehikoinen, Aleksi; Andersson, Tommi; Aspi, Jouni; Cederberg, Tony; Hänninen, Jari; Inkinen, Jasmin; Koskinen, Janne; Lundberg, Göran; Mäkinen, Katja; Rontti, Markku; Snickars, Martin; Solbakken, Jostein; Sundell, Janne; Syvänperä, Ilkka; Vuorenmaa, Silja; Ylönen, Jari; Vesterinen, Eero J.; Lilley, Thomas M. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023)The distribution ranges and spatio-temporal patterns in the occurrence and activity of boreal bats are yet largely unknown due to their cryptic lifestyle and lack of suitable and efficient study methods. We approached the ... -
Choosy beetles : How host trees and southern boreal forest naturalness may determine dead wood beetle communities
Burner, Ryan C.; Birkemoe, Tone; Stephan, Jörg G.; Drag, Lukas; Muller, Jörg; Ovaskainen, Otso; Potterf, Mária; Skarpaas, Olav; Snall, Tord; Sverdrup-Thygeson, Anne (Elsevier, 2021)Wood-living beetles make up a large proportion of forest biodiversity and contribute to important ecosystem services, including decomposition. Beetle communities in managed southern boreal forests are less species rich ... -
Novel community data in ecology : properties and prospects
Hartig, Florian; Abrego, Nerea; Bush, Alex; Chase, Jonathan M.; Guillera-Arroita, Gurutzeta; Leibold, Mathew A.; Ovaskainen, Otso; Pellissier, Loïc; Pichler, Maximilian; Poggiato, Giovanni; Pollock, Laura; Si-Moussi, Sara; Thuiller, Wilfried; Viana, Duarte S.; Warton, David I.; Zurell, Damaris; Yu, Douglas W. (Cell Press, 2024)New technologies for monitoring biodiversity such as environmental (e)DNA, passive acoustic monitoring, and optical sensors promise to generate automated spatiotemporal community observations at unprecedented scales and ... -
Global monitoring of soil animal communities using a common methodology
Potapov, Anton. M.; Sun, Xin; Barnes, Andrew D.; Briones, Maria J.; Brown, George G.; Cameron, Erin K.; Chang, Chih-Han; Cortet, Jerome; Eisenhauer, Nico; Franco, Andre L.; Fujii, Saori; Geisen, Stefan; Guerra, Carlos; Gongalsky, Konstantin; Haimi, Jari; Handa, I. Tanya; Janion-Sheepers, Charlene; Karaban, Kamil; Lindo, Zoe; Mathieu, Jerome; Moreno, Maria Laura; Murvanidze, Maka; Nielsen, Uffe; Scheu, Stefan; Schmidt, Olaf; Schneider, Clement; Seeber, Julia; Tsiafouli, Maria; Tuma, Jiri; Tiunov, Alexei; Zaytsev, Andrey S.; Ashwood, Frank; Callaham, Mac; Wall, Diana (Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz, 2022)Here we introduce the Soil BON Foodweb Team, a cross-continental collaborative network that aims to monitor soil animal communities and food webs using consistent methodology at a global scale. Soil animals support vital ... -
How Citizen Scientists Learn : Exploring Learning Perceptions Through an International Survey
Peltoniemi, Aaron J.; Kauppinen, Heli; Lampi, Emilia; Lämsä, Joni; Sabel, Ohto; Hämäläinen, Raija (Ubiquity Press, Ltd., 2023)Citizen science (CS) is a growing field of participatory science, bringing together the public, researchers, organizations, and communities to participate in various scientific projects that unfold in different sociomaterial ...