ABSTRACT
Avian communities composed of a total of 79 species were sampled repeatedly at different times of day throughout the breeding season in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. Estimates of taxonomic diversity (species richness, Shannon index and probability of interspecific encounter) were highest in the morning, whereas estimates of functional diversity (functional richness, evenness, Rao’s entropy and mean distinctiveness) did not vary significantly throughout the day. These results suggest that estimates of taxonomic diversity in avian communities are biased by time-of-day, but measures of functional diversity may be more robust to such bias.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for fruitful discussions of the manuscript among members of the Walters Lab. We thank the reviewers and the editorial board for helping us to improve the manuscript.
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Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor corrections. These changes do not affect the academic content of the article