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Macroevolutionary convergence connects morphological form to ecological function in birds
- Source :
- Pigot, A L, Sheard, C, Miller, E T, Bregman, T P, Freeman, B G, Roll, U, Seddon, N, Trisos, C H, Weeks, B C & Tobias, J A 2020, ' Macroevolutionary convergence connects morphological form to ecological function in birds ', Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 4, pp. 230-239 (2020) . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1070-4
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Animals have diversified into a bewildering variety of morphological forms exploiting a complex configuration of trophic niches. Their morphological diversity is widely used as an index of ecosystem function, but the extent to which animal traits predict trophic niches and associated ecological processes is unclear. Here we use the measurements of nine key morphological traits for >99% bird species to show that avian trophic diversity is described by a trait space with four dimensions. The position of species within this space maps with 70–85% accuracy onto major niche axes, including trophic level, dietary resource type and finer-scale variation in foraging behaviour. Phylogenetic analyses reveal that these form–function associations reflect convergence towards predictable trait combinations, indicating that morphological variation is organized into a limited set of dimensions by evolutionary adaptation. Our results establish the minimum dimensionality required for avian functional traits to predict subtle variation in trophic niches and provide a global framework for exploring the origin, function and conservation of bird diversity.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Foraging
Niche
DIVERSITY
Biodiversity
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
DIMENSIONALITY
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Birds
03 medical and health sciences
Adaptive radiation
Animals
R PACKAGE
Community ecology
Macroecology
Ecosystem
Phylogeny
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
030304 developmental biology
Trophic level
Ecological niche
Evolutionary Biology
0303 health sciences
Functional ecology
Science & Technology
Ecology
EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS
Biological Evolution
ADAPTIVE RADIATION
Evolutionary biology
DIVERSIFICATION
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
PLANT TRAITS
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 2397334X
- Volume :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....36bb2bd1e69d36287d44f19bbb5399ec