Theoretical habitat templets, species traits, and species richness: birds in the Upper Rhône River and its floodplain

• 1 To test predictions of the river habitat templet and the patch dynamics concept, twenty species traits and the species richness of eighty-one bird species were examined in the context of the spatial – temporal variability of ninety-one sites at Jons, a section of the Upper Rhône River, France.
• 2 The basic information was obtained either from the literature (for species traits) or by observation, then structured by a fuzzy coding technique, and examined using multivariate analyses.
• 3 The relationships between species traits separated three groups of birds: (i) large species that are long lived, have long breeding cycles, and use open sites to feed, breed, and sing (e.g. Podicipidae, Laridae); (ii) medium-sized species with intermediate longevities and breeding cycles that use less open sites (e.g. Columbidae, Corvidae); and (iii) small species that are short lived, have short breeding cycles, and use closed sites (e.g. Sylviidae).
• 4 The distribution of birds in the floodplain habitats of the river was closely related to the spatial–temporal variability of sites.
• 5 No trends in species traits were observed along a gradient of spatial–temporal variability of the sites.
• 6 Species richness of birds was relatively constant over the gradient of spatial–temporal variability of the ninety-one sites, but decreased at low spatial and high temporal variability because of human activities and vegetation changes that occurred at these sites.
• 7 These observations on species traits and richness were related to the high mobility of birds (which is a scale phenomenon) and the high intercorrelation between parameters used to determine the spatial and temporal variability of the sites (which makes separation of the spatial from the temporal variability impossible).