1. Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents
- Author
-
Tomasz Chodkiewicz, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Åke Lindström, Virginia Escandell, Magne Husby, Tommaso Campedelli, Przemysław Chylarecki, Jean-Yves Paquet, Chris A. M. van Turnhout, Ainars Aunins, Rhys E. Green, John R. Sauer, Lluís Brotons, Tibor Szép, Arco J. van Strien, Jiri Reif, Lucy R. Mason, Olivia Crowe, Frédéric Jiguet, Thomas Sattler, Sven Trautmann, Stephen G. Willis, Jaanus Elts, Jamie Alison, Aleksi Lehikoinen, Sergi Herrando, Petr Vorisek, David G. Noble, Philip A. Stephens, Norbert Teufelbauer, Richard D. Gregory, Ruud P. B. Foppen, and Henning Heldbjerg
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Animal Ecology and Physiology ,Climate Change ,Population ,Population Dynamics ,Biodiversity ,Ecological Parameter Monitoring ,Climate change ,Breeding ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Birds ,Abundance (ecology) ,Animals ,education ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,education.field_of_study ,Multidisciplinary ,Phenology ,Ecology ,Global warming ,Interspecific competition ,15. Life on land ,United States ,Europe ,Geography ,13. Climate action ,Spatial variability ,Animal Migration ,Environmental Sciences - Abstract
Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Large-scale analyses have generally focused on the impacts of climate change on the geographic ranges of species, and on phenology, the timing of ecological phenomena. Here, we use long-term monitoring of the abundance of breeding birds across Europe and the USA to produce, for both regions, composite population indices for two groups of species: those for which climate suitability has been either improving or declining since 1980. The ratio of these composite indices, the Climate Impact Indicator (CII), reflects the divergent fates of species favored or disadvantaged by climate change. The trend in CII is positive and similar in the two regions. On both continents, interspecific and spatial variation in population abundance trends are well predicted by climate suitability trends. This work has been part-funded by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the European Environment Agency, European Commission, and by Durham University’s Grevillea Trust.
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF