Open AccessTaxonomic nestedness based on guilds? Bird assemblages of the Jardines de la Reina National Park, Cuba, as study case
Author(s) -
Antonio García Quintas,
Daylon Fundora Caballero,
Alain Parada Isada
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
animal biodiversity and conservation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.39
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 2014-928X
pISSN - 1578-665X
DOI - 10.32800/abc.2020.43.0043
Subject(s) - nestedness , guild , trophic level , ecology , national park , geography , biology , biodiversity , habitat
Nestedness is a widely known structuring model in insular and fragmented biotas that has often been assessed, but most studies to date have used a taxonomic approach. However, the relevance of an approach using functional groups has become increasingly highlighted in community ecology research. In this study, we evaluated the occurrence of nested structure in the Jardines de la Reina National Park bird assemblages as a whole, and its trophic guilds by following three different grouping criteria. We constructed species presence–absence matrices for each guild and estimated the degree of nestedness with the metric based on the overlap and decreasing fill, assessing its significance by means of two null models. Overall bird assemblage was significantly nested (NODF = 76.99; p = 0.01) whereas terrestrial insectivores (NODF = 81.32) and insectivores (NODF = 80.04) were the only trophic guilds (out of 19) that showed significant nestedness (p ≤ 0.01). These results could provide evidence of the structural and functional cohesion of avifauna at the study site, especially among its insect–eating taxa. Taxonomic nestedness based on a guilds approach may help identify suitable conservation strategies for avian communities inhabiting naturally fragmented areas such as the Jardines de la Reina National Park.