Trophic Niche Breadth of Falconidae Species Predicts Biomic Specialisation but Not Range Size

Abstract

Simple SummaryThe diversity of food consumed and the habitats occupied by species and populations, which is called a trophic niche, play a key role in biogeographic distribution patterns. Niche narrowing is considered a strategy to reduce resource-use overlap and competition among coexisting individuals, populations or species. However, the success of narrowing (specialism) or broadening (generalism) the trophic niche seems to depend on the temporal and spatial predictability of food resources. It is thought that specialist strategies are favoured in homogeneous environments predictable in time and space, while environmental unpredictability promotes generalist strategies that, in turn, allow a greater capacity to colonise new niches, thus tending to increase the geographic range size. Interestingly, although known at a within-population scale, the relationship between diet breadth and environmental heterogeneity at global and interspecific scales has not been explicitly assessed. Using the family Falconidae (Aves, Falconiformes) as a model study, we tested the prediction that those species with a wider diet spectrum will have larger geographic range sizes and inhabit more biomes. Our findings show that trophic breadth was not a good predictor for range size but was for total environmental heterogeneity, with more diet-generalist species occupying a higher number of biomes.Trophic niche breadth plays a key role in biogeographic distribution patterns. Theory posits that generalist strategies are favoured in a more heterogeneous set of environments across a spatio-temporal gradient of resources predictability, conferring individuals and species a greater capacity for colonising new habitats and thus expanding their distribution area. Using the family Falconidae (Aves, Falconiformes) as a model study, we tested the prediction that those species with a wider diet spectrum will have larger geographic range sizes and inhabit more biomes. We assessed the relationships between trophic breadth (diet richness and diversity) at different taxonomic resolutions of the prey (class and order), range size and biomic specialisation index (BSI; number of biomes inhabited) for the different species. Despite different diet breadth indexes and taxonomic resolutions defined differently the trophic niche of the clade and species, our findings revealed that trophic breadth was not a good predictor for range size but was for total environmental heterogeneity, with more diet-generalist species occupying a higher number of biomes. Diet breadth at the order taxonomic level showed a higher capacity of predicting BSI than at class level, and can be an important ecological trait explaining biogeographic patterns of the species.