Morán-Titla Christian D, García-Chávez Juan-Hector, Lopez-Toledo Leonel, González Clementina
Instituto de Investigaciones sobre los Recursos Naturales, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, Michoacán, México.
Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Puebla, México.
PeerJ. 2025 Jan 8;13:e18412. doi: 10.7717/peerj.18412. eCollection 2025.
Acoustic communities are acoustically active species aggregations within a habitat, where vocal interactions between species can interfere their communication. The acoustic adaptation hypothesis (AAH) explains how the habitat favors the transmission of acoustic signals. To understand how bird acoustic communities are structured, we tested the effect of habitat structure on the phylogenetic structure, and on the phylogenetic and vocal diversity of acoustic communities in a semi-arid zone of Mexico. From autonomous recordings in three types of vegetation (crop fields, tetecheras, and mesquiteras), which differ in terms of complexity and canopy openness, we evaluated sound attenuation, and estimated metrics of phylogenetic structure and diversity as well as acoustic diversity with the use of two indices. Mesquiteras showed greater vegetation density, more attenuation, more vocal diversity, as well as a phylogenetic structure that tended towards overdispersion, in contrast to crop fields that showed less vegetation density, less attenuation, less vocal diversity and more phylogenetic relatedness, while tetecheras showed intermediate patterns. Phylogenetic structure was explained by vegetation density and excess attenuation. The higher vocal diversity, phylogenetic structure tended towards overdispersion. These results suggest a role for environmental filters in the crop fields, where more closely related species with similar vocal characteristics coexist (supporting AAH), and probably competitive exclusion in the mesquiteras, where more distantly related species coexist, promoting vocal diversity. This study offers information about the influence of habitat on the acoustic community structure, which could inform our understanding of the distribution of species from acoustic perspective.
声学群落是指栖息地内具有声学活性的物种聚集，在该栖息地中，物种间的声音互动可能会干扰它们的交流。声学适应假说（AAH）解释了栖息地如何有利于声学信号的传播。为了了解鸟类声学群落是如何构建的，我们在墨西哥的一个半干旱地区测试了栖息地结构对系统发育结构以及声学群落的系统发育和声音多样性的影响。通过在三种植被类型（农田、tetecheras和mesquiteras）中进行自主录音，这三种植被在复杂性和树冠开阔度方面存在差异，我们评估了声音衰减，并使用两个指数估计了系统发育结构和多样性以及声学多样性的指标。与植被密度较低、衰减较少、声音多样性较少且系统发育相关性较高的农田相比，mesquiteras表现出更高的植被密度、更多的衰减、更多的声音多样性以及趋向于过度分散的系统发育结构，而tetecheras表现出中间模式。系统发育结构由植被密度和过量衰减来解释。声音多样性越高，系统发育结构趋向于过度分散。这些结果表明环境过滤在农田中起作用，在农田中具有相似声音特征的亲缘关系较近的物种共存（支持AAH），而在mesquiteras中可能存在竞争排斥，在那里亲缘关系较远的物种共存，促进了声音多样性。这项研究提供了关于栖息地对声学群落结构影响的信息，这可以从声学角度增进我们对物种分布的理解。
