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The roles of history and habitat area in the distribution and composition of avian species assemblages in the highlands of Costa Rica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2011

Gilbert Barrantes ,
Mariel Yglesias  and
Eric J. Fuchs
Gilbert Barrantes
Affiliation:
Escuela de Biología, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
Mariel Yglesias
Affiliation:
Escuela de Posgrado, Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza, CATIE 7170 Cartago, Turrialba 30501, Costa Rica
Eric J. Fuchs*
Affiliation:
Escuela de Biología, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]/[email protected]
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Abstract:

Bird species assemblages in isolated Neotropical highland mountains have been moulded by the drastic climatic changes that occurred in late Pleistocene. Palynological evidence indicates that after the Pleistocene the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama became isolated as climate turned gradually more tropical and highland vegetation retreated to the upper elevations of high mountains, forming highland islands. We surveyed birds at 10 representative sites throughout the Costa Rican highlands in order to determine the species composition of highland endemic assemblages. The area of available highland habitat explains 77% of the variance in species richness of the 36 highland endemics across highland islands, and the composition of these species assemblages have a nested distribution, rather than being independent sets of species on each island. The observed nested pattern is more consistent with a differential extinction model of species assemblages, and less likely to be explained by differential migration. We conclude that the reduction of highland vegetation and the avifauna associated with it, and its subsequent confinement to the summit of high mountains, is a possible explanation for the current distribution of highland endemic species in Costa Rican highland islands.

Keywords

endemic birdsextinctionhighland islandsnested assemblagesspecies composition
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , July 2011 , pp. 421 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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