Urbanization as a driver of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity loss in bird communities

Urbanization is one of the most important threats to biodiversity worldwide, since it drives declines in species, functional and phylogenetic diversity, and increases functional redundancy among species. We estimated taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity and the abundance of several functional groups in bird communities from a town in east-central Argentina in 1985-1986 and 30 years after (2015-2016). In 1985-1986, we found that taxonomic diversity (abundance, species richness, and alpha diversity), functional richness and basal phylogenetic diversity was negatively related to building cover, whereas terminal phylogenetic diversity showed a positive relationship with building cover. Moreover, the abundance of specialized functional groups (ground, aerial and foliage insectivores, nectarivores/insectivores, ground/canopy and ground granivores) decreased with increased building cover, whereas the reverse pattern for the abundance of generalists (medium/large and small omnivores) was found. In 201...