Multidecadal improvements in tropical wetland bird communities across spatial scales and diversity dimensions

Multidecadal improvements in tropical wetland bird communities across spatial scales and diversity dimensions | Authorea try { document.documentElement.classList.add('js'); } catch (e) { } var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'G-8VDV14Y67G']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Skip to main content Preprints Collections Wiley Open Research IET Open Research Ecological Society of Japan All Collections About About Authorea FAQs Contact Us Quick Search anywhere Search for preprint articles, keywords, etc. Search Search ADVANCED SEARCH SCROLL Ecography This is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed. Data may be preliminary. 12 May 2026 V1 Latest version Share on Multidecadal improvements in tropical wetland bird communities across spatial scales and diversity dimensions Authors : Daniela Cortes Guzman 0000-0001-6683-0224 [email protected] , Diana Bowler 0000-0002-7775-1668 [email protected] , Ireene Madindou [email protected] , Samuel Ngugi [email protected] , Matthias Schleuning [email protected] , and Peter Haase [email protected] Authors Info & Affiliations https://doi.org/10.22541/authorea.15003046/v1 21 views 20 downloads Contents Abstract Supplementary Material Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract Biodiversity is changing in complex and often non-parallel ways across space and time. Capturing such complexity requires integrative approaches that consider how species, trait, and phylogenetic diversity respond to environmental change. However, our understanding of how changes in one biodiversity aspect cascade into another remains limited, constraining our ability to draw comprehensive inferences for conservation actions. To address this gap, we use long-term bird count data from the International Waterbird Census to quantify temporal trends in population abundance and community diversity across spatial scales (α, β, and γ) and biodiversity dimensions (taxonomic, trait, and phylogenetic) from 1991 to 2023 across 20 wetlands in Kenya, encompassing both protected and unprotected areas. We related temporal trends to protection status, climate, and land cover, and compared trends among spatial scales and biodiversity dimensions. We found that biodiversity change is fundamentally scale- and dimension-dependent, demonstrating that patterns observed at one level cannot be inferred from others. Community diversity showed overall positive trends; however, whereas local (α) diversity increased continuously, increases in regional (β and γ) diversity weakened over time, suggesting increasing similarity among communities. Trait and phylogenetic diversity diverged from taxonomic trends, revealing shifts in community composition that were not captured by species richness alone. The positive effects of protected areas were stronger on communities than on individual populations, whereas the effects of climate and land cover were highly context-dependent. Our findings demonstrate that single-scale or single-metric assessments can misrepresent biodiversity change and suggest that conservation actions must be tailored to specific drivers, scales, and dimensions to achieve their intended benefits. Integrative conservation strategies that account for these nuanced responses are more likely to improve and maintain both local and regional biodiversity. Supplementary Material File (supplementary information.docx) supplementary information Download 2.22 MB Information & Authors Information Version history V1 Version 1 12 May 2026 Collection Ecography Keywords freshwater ecosystems biodiversity population ecology global change mutualistic networks seed dispersal pollination ecosystem functions tropical mountains metacommunity food web spatial ecology theoretical ecology wetland birds biodiversity trends protected areas taxonomic diversity trait diversity phylogenetic diversity Conservation Community dynamics ornithology avian ecology Spatial ecology temporal ecology biogeography macroecology freshwater ecosystems biodiversity macroecology beta diversity population ecology global change environmental science human-nature interactions coral reefs fish beta diversity freshwater statistical modelling paleoevironment mutualistic networks seed dispersal pollination ecosystem functions tropical mountains metacommunity food web spatial ecology theoretical ecology Authors Affiliations Daniela Cortes Guzman 0000-0001-6683-0224 [email protected] Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany, 60325 View all articles by this author Diana Bowler 0000-0002-7775-1668 [email protected] Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany, 60325 View all articles by this author Ireene Madindou [email protected] Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany, 60325 View all articles by this author Samuel Ngugi [email protected] Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany, 60325 View all articles by this author Matthias Schleuning [email protected] Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany, 60325 View all articles by this author Peter Haase [email protected] Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung, Frankfurt, Germany, 60325 View all articles by this author Metrics & Citations Metrics Article Usage 21 views 20 downloads .FvxKWukQNSOunydq8rnd { width: 100px; } Citations Download citation Daniela Cortes Guzman, Diana Bowler, Ireene Madindou, et al. Multidecadal improvements in tropical wetland bird communities across spatial scales and diversity dimensions. Authorea . 12 May 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/authorea.15003046/v1 If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download. For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu . 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