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Influences of Past, Present and Future Climate on the Structure and Diversity of Rainforest Bird Assemblages in North-Eastern Australia

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Influences of Past, Present and Future Climate on the Structure and Diversity of Rainforest Bird Assemblages in North-Eastern Australia ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Anderson, Alexander Sibthorpe (2011) Influences of past, present and future climate on the structure and diversity of rainforest bird assemblages in north-eastern Australia. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/29589/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/29589/ Influences of past, present and future climate on the structure and diversity of rainforest bird assemblages in north-eastern Australia Alexander Sibthorpe Anderson Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia. _____________________________________________________________ Still though art blest, compar’d wi’ me: The present only toucheth thee: But och! I backward cast me e’e, On prospects drear, An forward, tho I cannot see, I guess an fear! --Robert Burns, 1785 _____________________________________________________________ Submitted September 2011 In fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 2011 - i Statement of other contributors This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. However, analyses in chapters 5, 6, and 7 of this thesis have been made possible in part by access to data collected previously in the study region by other researchers: Steven Williams, Rob Henriod, Emily Bolitho, Samantha Fox, Jeff Middleton, and Luke Shoo. Co-author contributions to data chapters are as follows: Chapter 3: Alex Anderson: concept, funding, data collection, analysis, writing, editing. Tiago Marques: concept, editing. Luke Shoo: concept, editing, Richard Pearson: concept, editing. Stephen Williams: concept, funding, editing. Chapter 4: Alex Anderson: concept, funding, data collection, analysis, writing, editing. Luke Shoo: concept, editing. Richard Pearson: concept, editing. Stephen Williams: concept, funding. editing. Chapter 5: Alex Anderson: concept, funding, data collection, analysis, writing, editing. Luke Shoo: concept, data collection, editing. Richard Pearson: concept, editing. Stephen Williams: concept, funding, data collection, editing. Chapter 6: Alex Anderson: concept, funding, data collection, analysis, writing, editing. Luke Shoo: concept, data collection, editing. Richard Pearson: concept, editing. Stephen Williams: concept, funding, data collection, editing. Chapter 7: Alex Anderson: concept, funding, data collection, analysis, writing, editing. April Reside: analysis, editing Jeremy VanDerWal: climate data. Luke Shoo: concept, data collection, editing. Richard Pearson: editing. Stephen Williams: concept, funding, data collection, editing. Apart from these contributions, all other information analysed herein consists of original field data collected by the author. Funding support is indicated in the section following the acknowledgements. All data collected during this research is held at the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change (CTBCC) in the School of Marine and Tropical Biology and James Cook University, Townsville. Alexander S. Anderson September 2011 ii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the help of many people. I am deeply grateful to my father Gordon, who taught me an enduring curiosity and love for the natural world, and I wish he were able to see the completion of this milestone, as it owes much to his inspiration. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors Dr Luke Shoo, Professor Steve Williams and Professor Richard Pearson for their enthusiasm, ideas, patience, support and advice, and also for their work in this field that paved the way for the work I present here. In particular, I wish to express my gratitude to Steve for more than a decade of fostering my interest in and understanding of the rainforests of North Queensland, and to Luke, for his extreme patience, thoughtful comments, and helpful ideas, without which this thesis would not have been possible. If I have learnt something about rainforests, biodiversity and macroecology during my candidature, it is due in no small part to the collaborative efforts of these three mentors, and any errors or omissions are entirely my own. I would also like to thank two friends who have been a profound influence in my education as an ornithologist, Jo Wieneke and David James, for taking me “under their wings” and teaching me so much about birds and birding in Far North Queensland. Their enthusiasm and friendship opened up a new world for me, and I hope that I have done it justice. An enormous thank-you also goes to my family for their love, and for their support of me in my interest in ornithology and ecology from the outset. A special thanks to my mother, Beverly, for her fostering of my early interest in the natural world, and during my candidature for her love and support, her assistance in the field, in-house editing and strategic advice, and for providing a wonderful home and wholesome sustenance to fuel writing in the final stages. Also to my sister Bryony for providing an idyllic, solar-powered, all-organic, tall-forest writing-retreat amongst the birdsong in the final weeks, and to my nephew Morrow for his inspiring enthusiasm for the natural world. Heartfelt thanks also go to my sister Kate, step mother Sue and step-brother Jason for their love and support. Special thanks also to the Wilson family for their loving support during difficult times, and for providing a home-away-from-home on the Gold Coast when it was much needed. Heartfelt thanks also to the friends and colleagues who took the time to help me in the field, often in uncomfortable conditions and remote locations, but also in some of the most beautiful rainforests I know; thank you for sharing the adventures with me: Monica Gratani, Sophie Barbaroux, Niki Levikov, Tom Rayner and Tiffany Nelson, Camila Monasterio, Andrew Picone, and Rohan Wilson. iii A special thanks to Jeremy Little, for a kindred spirit with which to share some of the most difficult and enjoyable bushwalking I have yet to experience, and for unstinting sharing of knowledge, enthusiasm and experience on the Cape, and along with Maree for providing a home-away-from- home in Cairns. Many thanks also to my friends and colleagues at the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, for the many hours of highway and rainforest transect, in rain or shine, mud, leech, scrub- itch and stinging tree, winching, sawing and trudging, and for each contributing a piece to the puzzle that is rainforest biodiversity in this beautiful and precious region: Collin Storlie, Scott Parsons, Rob Puschendorf, Vanessa Valdez Ramirez, Marios Aristophanous, Liz Pryde, Kyran Staunton, Andres Merino-Viteri, Brook Bateman and Jeff Middleton. A special thank-you also to Ant Backer, for introducing me to the rainforests of the Australian Wet Tropics, (even if at first it was always at night, up a creek, and in the rain), and to Emily Bolitho and Sam Fox for teaching me the bird calls in the early days. A huge thank-you also to Yvette Williams for keeping the whole ship afloat. Tiago Marquez gave invaluable and expert remote assistance via skype to refine the analyses in chapter 3. A special thanks also goes April Reside and Jeremy VanDerWal for patient collaborations that made the last chapter possible. The assistance of Steve Buckland, Eric Rexstad, Len Thomas, Jeff Laake and others through the Distance help mailing list was always timely and useful. Joe Fontaine also provided help and encouragement, and Justin Perry and Paul De Torres made some helpful comments on an early draft of chapter 3. Within JCU School of Marine and Tropical Biology, Ross Alford, Simon Robson, Chris Johnson and Lin Schwarzkopf kept me afloat with employment in sometimes exotic locations, and always in enjoyable company, in addition to which Ross Alford also found time to make helpful and insightful comments after my completion seminar, which I hope have much improved my approach. I also wish to acknowledge the contribution of previous researchers to the database at the CTBCC which I accessed for many of my analyses. Steve Williams, Rob Henriod, Emily Bolitho, Sam Fox, Jeff Middleton, and Luke Shoo among others. I wish also to acknowledge the enormous cumulative contribution of the many citizen scientists and data collectors in the Birds Australia Atlas and Wildnet data bases projects used in chapter 7, and the support of Birds Australia and DERM in making these data available. I am also indebted to the key scientists in whose footsteps I tread, whose knowledge, passion and dedication have built up our understanding of Queensland rainforest biodiversity to its current state. Jiro Kikkawa, John Winter, Dave Hilbert, Peter Stanton, Stephen iv Schneider, Craig Moritz, and Leo Joseph to name a few. Their contribution is gratefully acknowledged. My heartfelt thanks, agradecimientos and remerciements to everyone at la Maison du Bonheur including (at some moment or another)
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