Bird communities from the Guadeloupe islands over the last 30,000 yrs

Abstract

Paleontological and archaeological data collected since the 1950s from the Guadeloupe Islands allow modern and past occurrences of bird species to be compared and changes (colonization, extirpation and extinction) in avian communities over the last 30,000 years to be highlighted. Here we report data from 24 assemblages from sites spread across Basse Terre, Grande Terre, La Désirade, Marie Galante and Les Saintes dating from the Late Pleistocene, before the arrival of humans, to the Historical period, subdivided into five main periods: pre‑human, Archaic, Ceramic, Contact and Colonial. At least 55 taxa have been identified, belonging to 26 families and 16 orders. Approximately 65 % of the identified taxa are the first fossil occurrences documented for the Guadeloupe or Lesser Antilles Islands (36 taxa) and provide a wealth of information for reconstructing the past geographic distribution of avian communities. Furthermore, a large part of the bird species became extinct (2 taxa) or were extirpated (17 taxa) from one or more islands of Guadeloupe, primarily during the Colonial period. Our results show direct and indirect human impact to be the main factor underlying the loss of avian biodiversity in the archipelago. These results are part of a modification of the Caribbean terrestrial vertebrate biocenosis in the second half of the Holocene, via the extinction of a significant number of non-volant terrestrial vertebrates. Among the terrestrial birds, these changes lead to a few extinctions, but mainly, to the local disappearance or reduction in habitat size of most forest birds.