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Elevational ranges of birds on a tropical montane gradient lag behind warming temperatures.

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Date
2011-01
Authors
Forero-Medina, German
Terborgh, John
Socolar, S Jacob
Pimm, Stuart L
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Abstract
<h4>Background</h4>Species may respond to a warming climate by moving to higher latitudes or elevations. Shifts in geographic ranges are common responses in temperate regions. For the tropics, latitudinal temperature gradients are shallow; the only escape for species may be to move to higher elevations. There are few data to suggest that they do. Yet, the greatest loss of species from climate disruption may be for tropical montane species.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We repeat a historical transect in Peru and find an average upward shift of 49 m for 55 bird species over a 41 year interval. This shift is significantly upward, but also significantly smaller than the 152 m one expects from warming in the region. To estimate the expected shift in elevation we first determined the magnitude of warming in the locality from historical data. Then we used the temperature lapse rate to infer the required shift in altitude to compensate for warming. The range shifts in elevation were similar across different trophic guilds.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Endothermy may provide birds with some flexibility to temperature changes and allow them to move less than expected. Instead of being directly dependent on temperature, birds may be responding to gradual changes in the nature of the habitat or availability of food resources, and presence of competitors. If so, this has important implications for estimates of mountaintop extinctions from climate change.
Type
Journal article
Subject
Animals
Birds
Reproducibility of Results
Behavior, Animal
Altitude
Biodiversity
Temperature
Climate
Tropical Climate
Population Dynamics
Species Specificity
Peru
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23558
Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1371/journal.pone.0028535
Publication Info
Forero-Medina, German; Terborgh, John; Socolar, S Jacob; & Pimm, Stuart L (2011). Elevational ranges of birds on a tropical montane gradient lag behind warming temperatures. PloS one, 6(12). pp. e28535. 10.1371/journal.pone.0028535. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23558.
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Scholars@Duke

Pimm

Stuart L. Pimm

Doris Duke Distinguished Professor of Conservation Ecology in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Stuart Pimm is a world leader in the study of present-day extinctions and what can be done to prevent them. His research covers the reasons why species become extinct, how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction and, importantly, the management consequences of this research. Pimm received his BSc degree from Oxford University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from New Mexico State University in 1974. Pimm is the author of over 350 scientific papers and five books. He i
Terborgh

John W. Terborgh

James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences
John W. Terborgh is a James B. Duke Professor of Environmental Science and is Co-Director of the Center for Tropical Conservation at Duke University. He is a member of the National Academy of Science, and for the past thirty-five years, he has been actively involved in tropical ecology and conservation issues. An authority on avian and mammalian ecology in neotropical forests, Dr. Terborgh has published numerous articles and books on conservation themes. Since 1973 he has operated a field statio
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