Bird’s Consortium Ties with Parthenocissus inserta (A. Kern.) Fritsch., 1922 on the Example of Forest Parks and City Phytocenoses in Kyiv City (Ukraine)

Abstract

Parthenocissus inserta (A. Kern.) Fritsch. adapts to living in the forests of Ukraine. The influence of P. inserta on native species and its consortial ties with representatives of the secondary ranges biota, in particular birds, has not been studied. The purpose of this study is to make an inventory of the consorts’ ornithocomplexes of P. inserta, to give a comparative analysis of topic and trophic consorts as a result of an introduced species’ participation in the transformation of habitat’s conditions. The material was collected from 2019 to 2022 in forest parks and urban green spaces of the Kyiv city. The bird distribution was determined by the standard method of counting birds at points. Exactly 12.2 ha of P. inserta plantations were surveyed. Trophic consortium relationships of P. inserta with 32 bird species and topic ones with six bird species were revealed. The species composition of consorts was higher in forest fragments than in urban plantations (26 and 21 species, respectively). In the ornithocomplexes of P. inserta consorts in forest biotopes, there was a smaller pressure of dominant species and a more evenly ranked distribution of species by abundance than in urbanized ones. The similarity of the consort’s species composition in urbanized and natural biotopes according to the Sorensen index was 0.64, in consorts 1 and 2 of the consortium concentres was 0.32, and in topic and trophic consorts was 0.27. According to the status of stay in the region, trophic consorts of P. inserta were mainly resident birds – 20 species (62.50%), wintering birds – six species (18.75%), and birds migrating through the region – six species of birds (18.75%). Among the topic consorts, there were four species of sedentary species and two species arriving for nesting. Principal component analysis revealed the largest positive relationship between P. inserta planting area and the number of consort bird species nesting (0.999) and feeding (0.889) on girlish vine plants. We predict that in the future, P. inserta will be more strongly woven into the matter cycle of the secondary range ecosystems. The study of consortial relationships between invasive plants and birds, taking into account the knowledge of the ecological characteristics of consort birds, will make it possible to more effectively prevent the spread of plants into natural biotopes.