Population links between an insectivorous bird and moths disentangled through national-scale monitoring data.
Ecol Lett
; 27(1): e14362, 2024 Jan.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38253060
ABSTRACT
Insects are key components of food chains, and monitoring data provides new opportunities to identify trophic relationships at broad spatial and temporal scales. Here, combining two monitoring datasets from Great Britain, we reveal how the population dynamics of the blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus are influenced by the abundance of moths - a core component of their breeding diet. We find that years with increased population growth for blue tits correlate strongly with high moth abundance, but population growth in moths and birds is less well correlated; suggesting moth abundance directly affects bird population change. Next, we identify moths that are important components of blue tit diet, recovering associations to species previously identified as key food sources such as the winter moth Operoptera brumata. Our work provides new evidence that insect abundance impacts bird population dynamics in natural communities and provides insight into spatial diet turnover at a national-scale.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Aves Canoras
/
Mariposas
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Ecol Lett
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Reino Unido