scholarly journals How Competition and Wildfire Affect Tree Range Shifts in the American West

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avery Hill ◽  
Christopher Field
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
American West ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Inventory Analysis ◽  
Plant Populations ◽  
Wildfire Occurrence ◽  
Contemporary Climate

Abstract Due to climate change, plant populations experience environmental conditions to which they are not adapted. Our understanding of the next century’s vegetation geography depends on the distance, direction, and rate at which plants redistribute in response to a changing climate. Although plant redistribution in response to contemporary climate change is widely observed, our understanding of its mechanics is nascent. In this study we test the response of plant range shift rates to wildfire occurrence using 33,838 Forest Inventory Analysis plots across five states in the western United States. Wildfire increased the rate of observed range shifts for 6/8 tree species by more than 22% on average, suggesting that incumbent vegetation can act as a barrier to plant range shifts and that fire management may play an important role in facilitating transitions between vegetation types in response to climate change.

scholarly journals Forest fires and climate-induced tree range shifts in the western US

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Avery P. Hill ◽  
Christopher B. Field
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Inventory Analysis ◽  
Plant Populations ◽  
Wildfire Occurrence ◽  
Western Us ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Climate Space

AbstractDue to climate change, plant populations experience environmental conditions to which they are not adapted. Our understanding of the next century’s vegetation geography depends on the distance, direction, and rate at which plant distributions shift in response to a changing climate. In this study we test the sensitivity of tree range shifts (measured as the difference between seedling and mature tree ranges in climate space) to wildfire occurrence, using 74,069 Forest Inventory Analysis plots across nine states in the western United States. Wildfire significantly increased the seedling-only range displacement for 2 of the 8 tree species in which seedling-only plots were displaced from tree-plus-seedling plots in the same direction with and without recent fire. The direction of climatic displacement was consistent with that expected for warmer and drier conditions. The greater seedling-only range displacement observed across burned plots suggests that fire can accelerate climate-related range shifts and that fire and fire management will play a role in the rate of vegetation redistribution in response to climate change.

Systemic range shift lags among a pollinator species assemblage following rapid climate change1This article is part of a Special Issue entitled “Pollination biology research in Canada: Perspectives on a mutualism at different scales”.

Botany ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (7) ◽  
pp. 587-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity E. Bedford ◽  
Robert J. Whittaker ◽  
Jeremy T. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Geographical Range ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Species Assemblage ◽  
Mobile Species ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Winter Temperatures

Contemporary climate change is driving widespread geographical range shifts among many species. If species are tracking changing climate successfully, then leading populations should experience similar climatic conditions through time as new populations establish beyond historical range margins. Here, we investigate geographical range shifts relative to changing climatic conditions among a particularly well-sampled assemblage of butterflies in Canada. We assembled observations of 81 species and measured their latitudinal displacement between two periods: 1960–1975 (a period of little climate change) and 1990–2005 (a period with large climate change). We find an unexpected trend for species’ northern borders to shift progressively less relative to increasing minimum winter temperatures in northern Canada. This study demonstrates a novel, systemic latitudinal gradient in lags among a large species assemblage in responses to recent climate change. Even among the most mobile species and without anthropogenic barriers to dispersal, these pollinators have been unable to extend their ranges as fast as required to keep pace with climate change.

Fewer butterflies seen by community scientists across the warming and drying landscapes of the American West

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 371 (6533) ◽  
pp. 1042-1045
Author(s):  
M. L. Forister ◽  
C. A. Halsch ◽  
C. C. Nice ◽  
J. A. Fordyce ◽  
T. E. Dilts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
American West ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Western United States ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biotic Response ◽  
Insect Populations ◽  
Annual Reduction

Uncertainty remains regarding the role of anthropogenic climate change in declining insect populations, partly because our understanding of biotic response to climate is often complicated by habitat loss and degradation among other compounding stressors. We addressed this challenge by integrating expert and community scientist datasets that include decades of monitoring across more than 70 locations spanning the western United States. We found a 1.6% annual reduction in the number of individual butterflies observed over the past four decades, associated in particular with warming during fall months. The pervasive declines that we report advance our understanding of climate change impacts and suggest that a new approach is needed for butterfly conservation in the region, focused on suites of species with shared habitat or host associations.

scholarly journals Empirical evidence for different cognitive effects in explaining the attribution of marine range shifts to climate change

2015 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 1306-1318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid E. van Putten ◽  
Stewart Frusher ◽  
Elizabeth A. Fulton ◽  
Alistair J. Hobday ◽  
Sarah M. Jennings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Cognitive Effects ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Marine Resource ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Marine Climate

Abstract The changing geographical distribution of species, or range shift, is one of the better documented fingerprints of climate change in the marine environment. Range shifts may also lead to dramatic changes in the distribution of economic, social, and cultural opportunities. These challenge marine resource users' capacity to adapt to a changing climate and managers' ability to implement adaptation plans. In particular, a reluctance to attribute marine range shift to climate change can undermine the effectiveness of climate change communications and pose a potential barrier to successful adaptation. Attribution is a known powerful predictor of behavioural intention. Understanding the cognitive processes that underpin the formation of marine resource users' beliefs about the cause of observed marine range shift phenomena is therefore an important topic for research. An examination of the attribution by marine resource users of three types of range shifts experienced in a marine climate change hotspot in southeast Australia to various climate and non-climate drivers indicates the existence of at least three contributing cognitions. These are: (i) engrained mental representations of environmental phenomena, (ii) scientific complexity in the attribution pathway, and (iii) dissonance from the positive or negative nature of the impact. All three play a part in explaining the complex pattern of attribution of marine climate change range shifts, and should be considered when planning for engagement with stakeholders and managers around adaptation to climate change.

scholarly journals Simulating the effects of local adaptation and life history on the ability of plants to track climate shifts

AoB Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily V Moran
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Climate Shift ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Climate Shifts ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Many studies have examined the impact of dispersal on local adaptation, but much less attention has been paid to how local adaptation influences range shifts. The aim of this study was to test how local adaptation might affect climate-driven range shifts in plants, and if this might differ between plants with different life histories. Simulated range shift dynamics were compared for hypothetical annual, perennial and tree species, each comprised of either one plastic genotype or six locally adapted genotypes. The landscape consists of shifting climate bands made up of 20 × 20 m patches containing multiple individuals. Effects of seed dispersal, breadth of the plastic species’ tolerance, steepness of the climate gradient and rate of the climate shift are also examined. Local adaptation increased the equilibrium range size and aided range shifts by boosting fitness near range edges. However, when the rate of climate change was doubled on a steep gradient, locally adapted trees exhibited a higher percent loss of range during the climate shift. The plastic annual species with short dispersal was unable to recover its range size even after the climate stabilized, while the locally adapted annuals tracked climate change well. The results suggest that in most situations local adaptation and longer dispersal distances will be advantageous, though not necessarily sufficient, for tracking suitable climates. However, local adaptation might put species with long generation times at greater risk when climate shifts are very rapid. If confirmed by empirical tests, these results suggest that identifying variation between species in how fitness varies along climate gradients and in these key demographic rates might aid in prioritizing management actions.

scholarly journals Habitat availability explains variation in climate-driven range shifts across multiple taxonomic groups

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Platts ◽  
Suzanna C. Mason ◽  
Georgina Palmer ◽  
Jane K. Hill ◽  
Tom H. Oliver ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Habitat Restoration ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Distribution Data ◽  
Habitat Availability ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Recent Climate

Abstract Range shifting is vital for species persistence, but there is little consensus on why individual species vary so greatly in the rates at which their ranges have shifted in response to recent climate warming. Here, using 40 years of distribution data for 291 species from 13 invertebrate taxa in Britain, we show that interactions between habitat availability and exposure to climate change at the range margins explain up to half of the variation in rates of range shift. Habitat generalists expanded faster than more specialised species, but this intrinsic trait explains less of the variation in range shifts than habitat availability, which additionally depends on extrinsic factors that may be rare or widespread at the range margin. Similarly, while climate change likely underlies polewards expansions, we find that more of the between-species variation is explained by differences in habitat availability than by changes in climatic suitability. A model that includes both habitat and climate, and their statistical interaction, explains the most variation in range shifts. We conclude that climate-change vulnerability assessments should focus as much on future habitat availability as on climate sensitivity and exposure, with the expectation that habitat restoration and protection will substantially improve species’ abilities to respond to uncertain future climates.

scholarly journals An Orchid in Retrograde: Climate-Driven Range Shift Patterns of Ophrys helenae in Greece

Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 470
Author(s):  
Martha Charitonidou ◽  
Konstantinos Kougioumoutzis ◽  
John M. Halley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Species Distribution Modelling ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Distribution Modelling ◽  
Species Response ◽  
Northwestern Greece ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial

Climate change is regarded as one of the most important threats to plants. Already species around the globe are showing considerable latitudinal and altitudinal shifts. Helen’s bee orchid (Ophrys helenae), a Balkan endemic with a distribution center in northwestern Greece, is reported to be expanding east and southwards. Since this southeastern movement goes against the usual expectations, we investigated via Species Distribution Modelling, whether this pattern is consistent with projections based on the species’ response to climate change. We predicted the species’ future distribution based on three different climate models in two climate scenarios. We also explored the species’ potential distribution during the Last Interglacial and the Last Glacial Maximum. O. helenae is projected to shift mainly southeast and experience considerable area changes. The species is expected to become extinct in the core of its current distribution, but to establish a strong presence in the mid- and high-altitude areas of the Central Peloponnese, a region that could have provided shelter in previous climatic extremes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document