journal article Open Access Aug 01, 2021

Understanding arid‐region waterbird community dynamics during lake dry‐downs

Ecosphere Vol. 12 No. 8 · Wiley
View at Publisher Save 10.1002/ecs2.3668
Abstract
AbstractThe community dynamics of organisms that exhibit multi‐scale responses to habitat change are poorly understood. We quantified changes in species diversity and the functional composition of a waterbird community over two iterations of a repeated transition, the annual drying‐down of arid‐region Lake Ngami, Botswana. We used our data to test three theoretical predictions: simplification of the bird community over time due to a reduction in habitat area and concurrent niche loss; large fluctuations in densities of mobile, opportunistic species; and high variance in predator and prey abundance. Despite temporal variance in species accumulation, we observed no obvious simplification and distinct but consistent groupings of abundance and composition across transitional stages. There were some rapid shifts in functional composition, such as loss of deepwater foragers; winners and losers also occurred within foraging guilds. We conclude that understanding community‐level trends during transitional periods will require stronger theoretical frameworks that more effectively integrate unique species traits and functional groups. For conservation managers, our study offers a cautionary tale of the importance of understanding connectivity, trajectories of change, and the potential for large fluctuations in animal communities independent of management actions during periods of ecological transition.
Topics

No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →

References
42
[1]
Resource variability, aggregation and direct density dependence in an open context: the local regulation of an African elephant population

Simon Chamaillé‐Jammes, Hervé Fritz, Marion Valeix et al.

Journal of Animal Ecology 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2007.01307.x
[7]
Cumming G. S. "Waterbird count data and R code for community‐level analysis: Lake Ngami 2007–2009" Dryad, Dataset (2021)
[11]
Hockey P. A. R. (2005)
[12]
Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems

C S Holling

Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 10.1146/annurev.es.04.110173.000245
[13]
Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems

C. S. Holling

Ecosystems 10.1007/s10021-001-0101-5
[14]
Holt R. (1995)
[17]
Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals?

G. E. Hutchinson

The American Naturalist 10.1086/282070
[20]
Kurugundla C. "Revisiting hydrology of Lake Ngami in Botswana" Hydrology: Current Research (2018)
[26]
Mundy P. J. (1989)
[27]
Oksanen J. F. G.Blanchet R.Kindt P.Legendre R. B.O'Hara G. L.Simpson P.Solymos M. H. H.Stevens andH.Wagner.2011.vegan: Community ecology package. R package version 1.17‐6.http://CRAN.R‐project.org/package=vegan
[29]
R Core Team (2013)
[37]
mvabund– an R package for model‐based analysis of multivariate abundance data

Yi Wang, Ulrike Naumann, Stephen T. Wright et al.

Methods in Ecology and Evolution 10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00190.x