Changes in the functional diversity of modern bird species over the last million years.

ABSTRACT: Despite evidence of declining biosphere integrity, we currently lack understanding of how the functional diversity associated with changes in abundance among ecological communities has varied over time and before widespread human disturbances. We combine morphological, ecological, and life-history trait data for >260 extant bird species with genomic-based estimates of changing effective population size (N_e) to quantify demographic-based shifts in avian functional diversity over the past million years and under pre-anthropogenic climate warming. We show that functional diversity was relatively stable over this period, but underwent significant changes in some key areas of trait space due to changing species abundances. Our results suggest that patterns of population declin

SUBMITTER: Germain RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9963860 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature