Bird Survey Data, Far North Queensland Rainforest SuperSite, Robson Creek, 2013

This project is documenting the distribution of bird species and the structure of bird communities at the TERN 25 Ha Plot at Robson Creek. The advantage of using the Plot as a point of focus is that the mapping and plant community data provide a phenological and ecological context for interpreting drivers of the bird community at that site. The Robson Creek plot site was chosen because being situated at c. 700m it represents a ‘tension’ zone between different tropical forest communities that are likely to show shifts under climate change. Bird communities below 600-800m can be characterised as current lowland, warm climate communities while those above 600-800m take on species with upland distributions, e.g. golden bowerbireds. grey-headed robins and fernwrens. Robson Creek being situated at the current altitudinal boundaries of the distribution of the upland and lowland specialist species consequently represents an ideal site for monitoring the species and community responses to climate change over time. In this project we are interested in species and community responses to climate change in three contexts. First, at the species level we are interested in how individual species respond in abundance and seasonality. Second, at the community level we are interested in i) describing changes in species distribution, ii) the effects of this on community composition and structure and iii) how this varies through the year.本项目旨在记录罗布森溪（Robson Creek）TERN 25公顷样地内的鸟类物种分布与鸟类群落结构。以该样地为研究核心的优势在于，其配套的植被制图与植物群落数据，可为解析该站点鸟类群落的驱动因子提供物候学与生态学背景。选择罗布森溪样地的原因在于，其海拔约700米，处于两类热带森林群落之间的“张力交错带”——这类群落很可能在气候变化影响下发生组成偏移。海拔600-800米以下的鸟类群落可被归类为当前的低地暖温型群落；而海拔600-800米以上的鸟类群落，则以具有山地分布特征的物种为优势类群，例如金园丁鸟（Golden Bowerbird）、灰头鸲（Grey-headed Robin）与蕨鹩（Fernwren）。罗布森溪正处于山地与低地特化物种当前分布的海拔边界之上，因此其成为长期监测物种与群落对气候变化响应的理想研究站点。本项目聚焦三类研究场景下物种与群落对气候变化的响应：其一，在物种层面，我们关注单个物种的丰度与季节动态如何变化；其二，在群落层面，我们的研究内容包括：i）描述物种分布的变化特征；ii）此类变化对群落组成与结构的影响；iii）上述效应随季节的波动规律。