Birds in vegetation of invasive allien plant species

Invasive plant species cause changes in the environment of natural habitat biotopes, and their impact is therefore is probably one of the most important threats to global biodiversity leading to homogenization of local ecological assemblages. Plant invasions disrupt ecosystem stability, change their functioning and structure, cause habitat fragmentation and sometimes function as ecological traps. Many scientists study the impacts of invasive species but they have been focusing mainly on plant communities or invertebrates. Effects on vertebrates, for example on birds, are not sufficiently explored. Birds are important components of ecosystems though, they provide wide range of ecosystem services, regulate abundance of herbivorous insect and some are among the top predators. Birds in turn affect plants by dispersing their seeds but this relationship can sometimes be disrupted by plant invasion. This thesis deals with the impact of invasive plants on bird communities and aims a systematic evaluation and summarization of scientific literature on this topic. Results suggest that birds in invaded ecosystems suffer from higher predation levels, they have lower reproductive success species and diversity of bird communities is reduced. Factors underlying these patterns are a decrease in diversity and abundance of..