Biotic predictors complement models of bat and bird responses to climate and tree diversity in European forests.

ABSTRACT: Bats and birds are key providers of ecosystem services in forests. How climate and habitat jointly shape their communities is well studied, but whether biotic predictors from other trophic levels may improve bird and bat diversity models is less known, especially across large bioclimatic gradients. Here, we achieved multi-taxa surveys in 209 mature forests replicated in six European countries from Spain to Finland, to investigate the importance of biotic predictors (i.e. the abundance or activity of defoliating insects, spiders, earthworms and wild ungulates) for bat and bird taxonomic and functional diversity. We found that nine out of 12 bird and bat diversity metrics were best explained when biotic factors were added to models including climate and habitat variables, with a mean gain in

SUBMITTER: Barbaro L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6367190 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature