Compensatory dynamics maintain bird phylogenetic diversity in fragmented tropical landscapes

1.Tropical forest loss can drive the extinction of forest-dependent species. Yet, non-forest species can proliferate in deforested landscapes, thus enabling community-level attributes (e.g., total abundance and richness) to be maintained in the remaining forest patches. Such compensatory dynamics have been, however, poorly investigated regarding the phylogenetic dimension of species diversity. Here, we assessed whether compensatory dynamics can stabilize the phylogenetic richness, divergence and structure of bird communities in response to forest loss in two regions in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, each under with different levels of land use intensification.

2.We surveyed birds in 40 forest sites, and assessed the response of five phylogenetic metrics to forest cover measured in local (600-m radius) landscapes. We separately assessed the entire community, forest-dependent and non-forest-dependent species and used information-theoretic criteria to assess the effect of forest cover o...