Nightjar diversity and microhabitat use in Nechisar National Park, Ethiopia

<p>Knowledge of the distribution and ecology of East African nightjars is, to a large extent, unknown. We collected ecological information on the diversity and microhabitat use of nightjars in Nechisar National Park in January 2015 by executing field captures and observations. We also attempted to find a live specimen of the Nechisar Nightjar <i>Caprimulgus solala</i>. During the course of 18 nights we observed five nightjar species, captured 49 individuals and observed that nightjars were closely associated with protective landscape elements. In spite of the intensity of our survey, we were not able to find a living specimen of the Nechisar Nightjar, which could indicate the species is either migratory or extinct.</p

Majority-rule consensus tree from the Bayesian analysis of the concatenated 18S+28S rDNA dataset.

<p>Dalytyphloplanida consists of Neotyphloplanida and Neodalyellida. Symbols above the branches indicate bootstrap values from the ML analysis. No symbols indicate support values below the thresholds in the legend. Branches have been collapsed when both the posterior probabilities and bootstrap support values are below the thresholds in the legend. Scale bars represent numbers of substitutions/site. Node numbers correspond with the most recent common ancestors of the ancestral state reconstructions.</p

Dalytyphloplanid phylogeny redrawn after Willems et al. [<b>1</b>].

<p>Dalytyphloplanida consists of Neotyphloplanida and Neodalyellida. Numbers of species per terminal taxon are given in parentheses if >1.</p

Primers and usage.

<p>Primers and usage.</p

Ancestral state reconstruction using BayesTraits v3.1.2.

<p>Habitat states are categorised as marine/brackish water (M/B) or limnic/limnoterrestrial (L/LT). Analysed nodes representing most recent common ancestors (MRCA) are visualised in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0059917#pone-0059917-g002" target="_blank">Fig. 2</a>. Bayes Factors (BF) were calculated with the harmonic means (HM) of the fossilised states: BF = 2*(HM_{best model}−HM_{worse model}). Support for the best model is described as “average” (BF>0), “positive” (BF>2), “strong” (BF>5) or “very strong” (BF>10).</p

Traditional classification of the taxa comprising Dalytyphloplanida.

<p>Traditional classification of the taxa comprising Dalytyphloplanida.</p

Number of species found in Northern Sardinia and in Western Sweden for each taxon.

*<p>Include only records from exclusively endobenthic families.</p>**<p>The original estimate reported by Willems et al <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0033801#pone.0033801-Willems1" target="_blank">[4]</a> were lower. The current numbers are the result of subsequent taxonomic studies on additional material.</p

Representatives of the soft-bodied meiofaunal taxa considered in the analyses.

<p>A, <i>Flagellophora</i> sp. -Nemeretodermatida; B, <i>Proporus</i> sp. -Acoela; C, <i>Polycystis naegelii</i> -Rhabdocoela: D, <i>Parotoplana renatae</i> -Proseriata; E, <i>Urodasys viviparus</i> -Gastrotricha; F, <i>Brachionus ibericus</i> -Rotifera; <i>Mesonerilla intermedia</i> -Annelida. Light microscopy phomicrographs, scale bars A, C, E = 100 µm, B, D, G = 250 µm, F = 20 µm.</p

Model-averaged parameter estimates.

<p>Relative-importance values (RI) and p-values for the six models with all ecologically relevant variables retained in the models. Identification codes from (i) to (iv) refer to the four models explained in the text; codes followed by ‘a’ refer to analyses using Chao estimates of regional diversity. Parameters with high relative-importance values are highlighted in bold.</p