Ecological barriers mediate spatiotemporal shifts of bird communities at a continental scale
Abstract
Species' range shifts and local extinctions caused by climate change lead to community composition changes. At large spatial scales, ecological barriers, such as biome boundaries, coastlines, and elevation, can influence a community's ability to shift in response to climate change. Yet, ecological barriers are rarely considered in climate change studies, potentially hindering predictions of biodiversity shifts. We used data from two consecutive European breeding bird atlases to calculate the geographic distance and direction between communities in the 1980s and their compositional best match in the 2010s and modeled their response to barriers. The ecological barriers affected both the distance and direction of bird community composition shifts, with coastlines and elevation having the strongest influence. Our results underscore the relevance of combining ecological barriers and community shift projections for identifying the forces hindering community adjustments under global change. Notably, due to (macro)ecological barriers, communities are not able to track their climatic niches, which may lead to drastic changes, and potential losses, in community compositions in the future.
Citation
Marjakangas , E-L , Bosco , L , Versluijs , M , Xu , Y , Santangeli , A , Holopainen , S , Mäkeläinen , S , Herrando , S , Keller , V , Voříšek , P , Brotons , L , Johnston , A , Princé , K , Willis , S G , Aghababyan , K , Ajder , V , Balmer , D E , Bino , T , Boyla , K A , Chodkiewicz , T , Del Moral , J C , Mazal , V D , Ferrarini , A , Godinho , C , Gustin , M , Kalyakin , M , Knaus , P , Kuzmenko , T , Lindström , Å , Maxhuni , Q , Molina , B , Nagy , K , Radišić , D , Rajkov , S , Rajković , D Z , Raudoniki , L , Sjeničić , J , Stoychev , S , Szép , T , Teufelbauer , N , Ursul , S , van Turnhout , C A M , Velevski , M , Vikstrøm , T , Wilk , T , Voltzit , O , Øien , I J , Sudfeldt , C , Gerlach , B & Lehikoinen , A 2023 , ' Ecological barriers mediate spatiotemporal shifts of bird communities at a continental scale ' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , vol. 120 , no. 23 , e2213330120 . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213330120
Publication
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1091-6490Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
Description
Funding: This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant P2BEP3_195232) and by the Academy of Finland (project 323527 and project 329251).Collections
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