Biotic homogenization—the erosion of biological differences between ecosystems owing to human perturbation—is a trait of the global biodiversity crisis that can affect tropical dry forest biodiversity. We tested whether biotic homogenization was occurring in resident forest bird communities in west-central Mexico. We conducted point-count surveys to assess biotic dissimilarity between resident bird communities in tropical deciduous and oak forests in the upper Balsas River basin across 3 levels of anthropogenic perturbation: primary forest, second-growth forest, and human settlements. We detected a reduction in species richness and taxonomic dissimilarity with increasing anthropogenic effects, due to a directional pattern in which lowland species expanded their elevational distributions up into oak forests. These results point to a need to change agricultural strategies to mitigate impacts on natural vegetation cover and biodiversity.
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26 April 2017
Directional effects of biotic homogenization of bird communities in Mexican seasonal forests
Leopoldo D. Vázquez-Reyes,
María del Coro Arizmendi,
Héctor O. Godínez-Álvarez,
Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza
The Condor
Vol. 119 • No. 2
May 2017
Vol. 119 • No. 2
May 2017
Anthropogenic perturbation
beta diversity
biodiversity
oak forest
tropical dry forest