Palms predict the distributions of birds in southwestern Amazônia and are potential surrogates for land-use planning by local communities

Abstract

In the absence of high-quality biodiversity data, land-use planners and conservationists often rely on biodiversity surrogates. Many studies have proposed surrogates based on assumptions about the environmental niches of species. However, the use of such assumptions is not always useful because biological processes and ecological interactions can operate at different scales due to the non-uniform geographical distribution of environmental conditions. Furthermore, these assumptions may obscure important relationships between species and their environment. To elucidate this issue, we asked whether biotic interactions between two taxonomic groups are more important than other factors in reflecting the distribution of unsampled species. To do this, we compared the relationship between the distribution of bird species and the distribution of the five most-abundant palm species, environmental factors, and the ecoregions. Our results show that bird-assemblage composition was more strongly correlated with changes in palm-species abundance, and that palms could serve as a cost-effective and efficient biodiversity surrogate for birds. These palm species are abundant and can be easily identified and monitored by non-specialists, such as those in local communities.