Null model analysis of spatial species associations in spruce, tree line and dwarf-pine bird assemblages in the High Tatras, the Western Carpathians

• Published in: Folia oecologica Vol. 43; no. 1; p. 21
• Main Authors: Kornan, Martin, Kornan, Ján
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Zvolen Walter de Gruyter GmbH 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Birds; Competition; Habitats; Small mammals; Studies; Trees
• ISSN: 1336-5266; 1338-7014

Jared Diamond proposed several assembly rules based on the assumption of competitive interactions among species. The first Diamond's rule proposes that communities are formed of certain permissible combinations of species that can co-exist. The fifth assembly rule states that some pairs of species never co-occur, forming so called "checkerboard" or complementary distributions. The objective ofthis study was totest these propositions on spruce, tree-line and dwarf-pine bird assemblages censused by the fixed radius point count method in the High Tatras, Slovakia. The null model simulations yielded no clear assembly patterns. The binary null models had tendency toward random associations, while quantitative null models suggested segregations. Presence/ absence null models showed tendency toward random associations in post-breeding and breeding spruce bird assemblages, while quantitative null models yielded half random and half segregations in post-breeding season and all types of associations were detected during the breeding with slight prevalence of segregation. All binary' tests indicated random associations in the post-breeding bird assemblages in the upper tree line and dwarf pine communities, whereas quantitative models showed prevalence of segregation. Binary models indicated slight prevalence of random associations in the breeding bird assemblages of the upper tree line and dwarf pine communities from territorial records and prevalence of segregation from all records. Quantitative models did not show consistent results in these habitat types detecting prevalence of segregations. In summary, the first Diamond's rule was not supported due to random patterns of unique species combinations and the fifth rule was supported partly by quantitative null model analyses.