Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Spatial Planning, Kamýcká 129, CZ-165 00, Prague 6, Czech Republic.
Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, CNRS UMR 8079, Université Paris-Sud, Bâtiment 362, F-91405, Orsay, Cedex, France.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 29;7(1):4376. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-04794-3.
Common cuckoo Cuculus canorus is a charismatic bird species with a dominant presence in human culture: from folklore legends to nowadays there is evidence of cuckoos being a prime candidate as a surrogate of bird diversity. Recent studies demonstrated that the cuckoo can predict hotspots of taxonomic diversity and functional diversity of bird communities in European countries. In this study, we demonstrated that the cuckoo is an excellent bioindicator at multi-spatial scale, extending cuckoo surrogacy from Europe to Asia. Even using three different survey methods (transect, square, point counts), comparing the new findings with results of our research in Europe, sites where the cuckoo is present were characterized by greater species richness, while the cuckoo was absent from sites with low species richness. The goodness of fit of models based on point counts ranged between 71 and 92%. Furthermore, the cuckoo population trend mirrors the average population trend and climate suitability of overall bird communities in Europe. The common cuckoo is therefore a suitable intercontinental bioindicator of hotspots of bird richness, even under climate change scenarios or in areas where the species co-occurs with other cuckoo species, opening a new avenue for standardized citizen science on bird biodiversity surveys worldwide.
普通杜鹃 Cuculus canorus 是一种具有魅力的鸟类物种，在人类文化中占有重要地位：从民间传说到现代，杜鹃都被认为是代表鸟类多样性的主要候选者。最近的研究表明，杜鹃可以预测欧洲国家鸟类群落分类多样性和功能多样性的热点。在这项研究中，我们证明了杜鹃在多空间尺度上是一种优秀的生物指标，可以将杜鹃的替代作用从欧洲扩展到亚洲。即使使用三种不同的调查方法（样线、方格、点计数），将新发现与我们在欧洲的研究结果进行比较，结果表明杜鹃存在的地方具有更高的物种丰富度，而在物种丰富度低的地方则没有杜鹃。基于点计数的模型拟合度在 71%到 92%之间。此外，杜鹃种群的趋势反映了欧洲整个鸟类群落的平均种群趋势和气候适宜性。因此，普通杜鹃是鸟类丰富热点的一种适合洲际的生物指标，即使在气候变化情景下或在与其他杜鹃物种共存的地区，这为全球鸟类生物多样性调查的标准化公民科学开辟了新途径。
