Altitudinal patterns in breeding bird species richness and density in relation to climate, habitat heterogeneity, and migration influence in South Korea

Division of Ecosystem Services and Research Planning, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, South Korea
Department of Forest Resources, Kongju National University, Kongju, South Korea
Division of Basic Ecology, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, South Korea
Division of Ecological Survey Research, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, South Korea
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.26468v1
Subject Areas
Biodiversity, Ecology, Forestry
Keywords
breeding bird, species richness, density, vertical habitat heterogeneity, Horizontal habiatat heterogeneity, altitudinal pattern, climate hypothesis, habitat heterogeneity hypothesis, heterospecific attraction hypothesis, mountain bird
Copyright
© 2018 Kim et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Kim J, Lee S, Shin M, Lee C, Seo C, Eo SH. 2018. Altitudinal patterns in breeding bird species richness and density in relation to climate, habitat heterogeneity, and migration influence in South Korea. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26468v1

Abstract

Altitudinal patterns in the population ecology of mountain bird species are useful for predicting species occurrence and behavior. Numerous hypotheses about the complex interactions among environmental factors have been proposed; however, these remain controversial. This study investigated the causes of altitudinal patterns in breeding bird species richness and density in relation to climate, habitat heterogeneity, and migration influence in Jirisan National Park, South Korea. We conducted a field survey of 142 plots at altitudes between 200 and 1400 m above mean sea level in the breeding season. A total of 2771 individuals from 53 breeding bird species were recorded. Altitudinal patterns of species richness and density showed a hump-shaped pattern, indicating that the highest richness and density could be observed at moderate altitudes. Models constructed with 16 combinations of six variables demonstrated that species richness was positively correlated with vertical and horizontal habitat heterogeneity, and that density was positively correlated with vertical, but not horizontal, habitat heterogeneity, and negatively correlated with migrant rate. No significant relationships were found between spring temperature and species richness or density. Therefore, the observed patterns in species richness support the hypothesis that habitat heterogeneity, rather than climate, is the main driver of species richness. And neither habitat heterogeneity nor climate hypotheses fully explains the observed patterns in density. However, vertical habitat heterogeneity does likely help explain observed patterns in density. The heterospecific attraction hypothesis did not apply to the distribution of birds along the altitudinal gradient. Appropriate management of vertical habitat heterogeneity, such as vegetation cover, should be maintained for the conservation of bird diversity in this area.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Species checklists of all birds recorded in Jirisan National Park, South Korea

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.26468v1/supp-1

Pearson’s correlations between climatic variables (spring temperature and relative humidity), vertical habitat heterogeneity (coverage of understory vegetation, midstory vegetation, and overstory vegetation), horizontal habitat heterogeneity (habitat dive

Bold = correlated predictor (r ≥ |0.7|).

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.26468v1/supp-2

Relationship between species richness and density

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.26468v1/supp-3

Relationship between species richness and density.Altitudinal patterns in coverage of (a) overstory vegetation, (b) understory vegetation, (c) species richness of residents and migrants (d) density of residents and migrants

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.26468v1/supp-4