Habitat specialization as determinant of species response to the Global Change

• Název práce v češtině: Habitatová specializace jako určující faktor druhové odpovědi na globální změnu
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Habitat specialization as determinant of species response to the Global Change
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2016/2017
• Typ práce: disertační práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav pro životní prostředí (31-550)
• Vedoucí / školitel: prof. Mgr. Jiří Reif, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 18.10.2016
• Datum zadání: 18.10.2016
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 09.07.2020
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 16.09.2020
• Oponenti: doc. RNDr. Jan Riegert, Ph.D.
• Konzultanti: doc. RNDr. David Hořák, Ph.D.

Předběžná náplň práce

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Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce

Populations of ecological specialists decline due to their sensitivity to global environmental changes. Although various studies confirmed this pattern, wider context of evolutionary causes and ecological consequences of species’ specialization remains unclear. Proposed project focuses on elucidating these issues using birds as study system. Birds are the only taxon with advanced knowledge of ecological and life history traits, population and range sizes, phylogenetic relationships and extinction risk of all species. Within this project, we will use this information to investigate following four topics (corresponding also to particular papers proposed for the Ph.D. thesis):
Spatial gradients in habitat specialization of bird communities. Species habitat specialization is related to environmental stability and life-history traits of species. As result, bird communities differ in proportion of specialists and generalists and we will investigate the factors accounting for this spatial variability at the continental-scale across Europe. We can hypothesize, that more specialized communities will be (i) in mountains and (ii) in habitats less disturbed by humans.
Global extinction risk and habitat specialization. The relationship between species threat and habitat specialization was already established in several national-level studies, but was not tested at the global scale, which is crucial for species persistence/extinction. We hypothesize that more specialized species will be at higher extinction risk and we will search for specific habitats and drivers associated with elevated threat levels.
Patterns in spatial variation of habitat specialization within species ranges. Species ecological specialization was traditionally perceived as an invariant species-level trait (although some recent studies discovered its temporal changes within species). However, this assumption is problematic because species densities vary within their geographic ranges (usually decreasing from range centre to edges) and we can expect that the habitat use and specialization will be also variables across space within species. We will test the relationships between species abundance, habitat specialization and position within bird breeding ranges in Europe.
Habitat specialization at different levels of biological organization. Species-level specialization is the metric most often used in ecological and conservation studies. However, habitat specialization can be also inferred for population- and individual-levels. For example, different populations of a habitat generalist can either occupy the same set of habitats occupied at the level of the whole species, or each population can breed in a specific habitat being thus population-level specialists. The same applies to the individual level. We collect own data in the field to discriminate between habitat specialists and generalists at individual-population-species levels of biological organization.