Changes in bird community composition in the Czech Republic from 1982 to 2004: increasing biotic homogenization, impacts of warming climate, but no trend in species richness

Abstract

Recent major environmental changes could lead to homogenization in the composition of plant and animal communities, with generalist species replacing more specialized species, as well as to the increased domination of species adapted to warmer climatic conditions. Using common bird monitoring data, we have tested whether these patterns can be observed in the long-term changes in the structure and species richness of bird communities in the Czech Republic. We focused on a comparison of two time periods (1982–1990 and 1991–2004) that differ in land use (high agricultural intensity in the former, and a drop in agricultural intensity accompanied by forest expansion in the latter). We found that bird communities became less specialized and that this decline in specialization did not change after 1990. In contrast, taxonomic homogenization increased during the first time period but declined at the beginning of the second one. Moreover, the community composition developed towards a dominance of species breeding in warmer climates, and this change coincided with an increase in spring temperatures. Therefore, it would appear that both functional and taxonomic homogenization took place in the 1980s but the latter did not continue in subsequent decades. Species richness of local bird communities did not show any trend over time. We suggest that climate warming might be an important driving force of changes in the bird community composition in the Czech Republic, but the role of land-use changes is less clear, although it is probable that habitat specialists probably did not benefit from lower intensity of agricultural activities and increased forest cover.