Paper out! Are birds delimited by rivers or environmental conditions? Or both?

The paper “The relative role of rivers, environmental heterogeneity and species traits in driving compositional changes in southeastern Amazonian bird assemblages” by Marina Maximiano, Fernando d’Horta, Hanna Tuomisto, Gabriela Zuquim, Jasper Van doninck, and Camila Ribas has been published in Biotropica. It is the result of ongoing collaboration between the Amazons and researchers from the Camila ribas lab at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian research in Manaus.

Some Amazonian rivers are so wide that may act as a barrier for species to move. It means that in different sides of a river, you expect to find different species. Or not…! Maybe it is simple because the environment is different in the different sides of the river. This is an extremely relevant question to plan conservation strategies. Differences in bird species ecology also affect the ability of birds to cross rivers and habitat specificity. For example, th

e composition of bigger birds species tended to be similar in both sides of Tapajós river while for smaller birds, each side of the river harbors different species composition.

Congratulations Marina, the Amazons and all co-authors!