Functional diversity of the avian assemblages better than taxonomic diversity in capturing the effect of protection

Protected areas (PAs) are the cornerstones of conservation and have been shown to support higher density of conservation-dependent species. The success of PAs has been attributed to their ability to mitigate both forest loss and forest degradation. Effectiveness of PAs is conventionally measured in terms of species diversity; evidence for the consequences of protection on the functional diversity of species assemblages is scarce. We utilized the Kerala Bird Atlas data to quantify alpha diversity, beta diversity, and functional diversity from 300 sites within protected and non-protected forests along the Western Ghats. Of the total forest cover in Kerala, about one-fourth is under protection, the rest constitute reserve forest (RF). We tested if various metrics of biodiversity differ across PAs and adjacent RFs and which metric better captures this difference. Results show that the effectiveness of protection varies across guilds and does not seem to impact overall species richness. PAs ..., This dataset is part of the manuscript which utilized data from the Kerala Bird Atlas. The Kerala Bird Atlas has been described elsewhere (Data set https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866t8g ). Additional details on the 361 avian species were obtained from references mentioned below:
● Stewart, P. et al. (2021), Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dfn2z351n● Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M. M., & Jetz, W. (2014). EltonTraits 1.0: Species‐level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals: Ecological Archives E095‐178. Ecology, 95(7), 2027-2027.● Bird J.P. , R. Martin, H.R. Akçakaya, J. Gilroy, I.J. Burfield, S.T. Garnett, A. Symes, J. Taylor, Ç.H. Şekercioğlu, S.H. Butchart. Generation lengths of the world’s birds and their implications for extinction risk Conserv. Biol. (2020), 10.1111/cobi.13486● SoIB, State of India’s Birds, Range, trends and conservation status. T..., ,

保护地（Protected Areas, PAs）是生物多样性保护的基石，已有研究证实其可提升依赖保护物种的种群密度。保护地的成功归因于其兼具缓解森林丧失与森林退化的能力。传统上，保护地的有效性多以物种多样性为衡量标准，而关于保护措施对物种群落功能多样性影响的相关研究证据仍较为匮乏。本研究借助喀拉拉邦鸟类图谱（Kerala Bird Atlas）数据，对西高止山脉沿线300处保护林与非保护林样地的α多样性、β多样性及功能多样性进行量化分析。喀拉拉邦的森林总面积中，约四分之一处于保护地管理范畴，剩余部分则为储备林（Reserve Forest, RF）。本研究旨在探究不同生物多样性指标在保护地与毗邻储备林间是否存在差异，并筛选出可最优反映该差异的指标。研究结果显示，保护措施的有效性因功能群而异，且似乎并未对整体物种丰富度产生显著影响。保护地……
本数据集隶属于本研究论文，所用数据源自喀拉拉邦鸟类图谱。喀拉拉邦鸟类图谱的详细信息已在其他文献中公开（数据集链接：https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866t8g）。本研究中361种鸟类的额外详细信息源自以下参考文献：
● Stewart P 等（2021），气候变化对鸟类功能多样性的全球影响，Dryad数据集，链接：https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dfn2z351n
● Wilman H, Belmaker J, Simpson J, de la Rosa C, Rivadeneira MM, Jetz W（2014）. EltonTraits 1.0：全球鸟类与哺乳类的物种级觅食特征：生态档案E095-178. 生态学（Ecology），95(7): 2027-2027.
● Bird JP, Martin R, Akçakaya HR, Gilroy J, Burfield IJ, Garnett ST, Symes A, Taylor J, Şekercioğlu ÇH, Butchart SH（2020）. 全球鸟类的世代长度及其对灭绝风险的影响. 保护生物学（Conservation Biology），10.1111/cobi.13486.
● 印度鸟类状况（State of India’s Birds, SoIB）：分布范围、种群趋势与保护现状。T……