Bird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish

Fascinating Life Sciences

by Dieter Thomas Tietze (Editor)

The average person can name more bird species than they think, but do we really know what a bird “species” is? This open access book takes up several fascinating aspects of bird life to elucidate this basic concept in biology. From genetic and physiological basics to the phenomena of bird song and bird migration, it analyzes various interactions of birds – with their environment and other birds. Lastly, it shows imminent threats to birds in the Anthropocene, the era of global human impact.

Although it seemed to be easy to define bird species, the advent of modern methods has challenged species definition and led to a multidisciplinary approach to classifying birds. One outstanding new toolbox comes with the more and more reasonably priced acquisition of whole-genome sequences that allow causative analyses of how bird species diversify.

Speciation has reached a final stage when daughter species are reproductively isolated, but this stage is not easily detectable from the phenotype we observe. Culturally transmitted traits such as bird song seem to speed up speciation processes, while another behavioral trait, migration, helps birds to find food resources, and also coincides with higher chances of reaching new, inhabitable areas. In general, distribution is a major key to understanding speciation in birds. Examples of ecological speciation can be found in birds, and the constant interaction of birds with their biotic environment also contributes to evolutionary changes. In the Anthropocene, birds are confronted with rapid changes that are highly threatening for some species. Climate change forces birds to move their ranges, but may also disrupt well-established interactions between climate, vegetation, and food sources.

This book brings together various disciplines involved in observing bird species come into existence, modify, and vanish. It is a rich resource for bird enthusiasts who want to understand various processes at the cutting edge of current research in more detail. At the same time it offers students the opportunity to see primarily unconnected, but booming big-data approaches such as genomics and biogeography meet in a topic of broad interest. Lastly, the book enables conservationists to better understand the uncertainties surrounding “species” as entities of protection.

266 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book! Brings together 13 scientific articles all exploring the concept or of drivers of bird species. Highly enjoyable. Each article was scientifically Explorative yet gave enough detail of ecology and genetics for a refresh/crashcourse.

My favourites were:
Intro: Studying Birds in Time and Space by Dieter Thomas Tietze
Song: The Learned Language of Three Major Bird Clades
Timing Matters: Allochronic Contributions to Population Divergence
(Micro)Evolutionary Changes and Evolutionary Potential of Bird Migration
Modeling Avian Distributions and Niches: Insights into Invasions and Speciation in Birds
Impct of Urbanization on Birds

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of 13 recent scholarly scientific papers that cover a comprehensive and current understanding of bird diversity. It is one volume of a series of scholarly works published by Springer; this volume is a "SpringerOpen" etextbook and the Kindle price is extremely reasonable. The book was edited by Dieter Thomas Tietze who wrote the forward. Each paper is presented in it's orginal form, so the style of writing differs. Some papers are more technical than others. Students who have a solid understanding of high school biology, college scholars, and ecological scientists will find this volume of interest, even if they are not focused on bird studies. Many of the methods and approaches used in the studies can be applied to other areas of research. There are numerous graphs, illustrations, and photographs; so for the best presentation, the ebook should be read with a Kindle app on a PC or Tablet, or with a Kindle Fire Tablet.

Here are the titles of the papers:
Forward - Introduces new methods for quantifying species traits, including use of genomic data and molecular dating. The ancestor of songbirds arose in the Australian region.
1. Introduction: Studying Birds in Time and Space
2. Integrative Taxonomy of Birds, The Nature and Delimitation of Species
3. Study of Speciation: Genomic Essentials and Approaches
4. Morphological Variation in Birds: Plasticity, Adaptation, and Speciation
5. Song: The Learned Language of Three Major Bird Clades
6. Timing Matters: Allochronic Contributors to Population Divergence
7. (Micro) Evolutionary Changes and the Evolutionary Potential of Bird Migration
8. Avian Diversity and Distribution and Their Evolution Through Space and Time
9. Modeling Avian Distributions and Niches: Insights into Invasions and Speciation in Birds
10. Phylogeography and the Role of Hybridization in Speciation
11. Ecological Speciation: When and How Variation Among Environments Can Drive Population
Divergence
12. Climate Change Impacts on Bird Species
13. Impact of Urbanization on Birds
Glossary