Outputs (20)

Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents (2016)
Journal Article
Stephens, P., Mason, L., Green, R., Gregory, R., Sauer, J., Alison, J., …Willis, S. (2016). Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents. Science, 352(6281), 84-87. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4858

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. We used long-term monitori... Read More about Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents.

Nationwide trophic cascades: changes in avian community structure driven by ungulates (2015)
Journal Article
Palmer, G., Stephens, P., Ward, A., & Willis, S. (2015). Nationwide trophic cascades: changes in avian community structure driven by ungulates. Scientific Reports, 5, Article 15601. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15601

In recent decades, many ungulate populations have changed dramatically in abundance, resulting in cascading effects across ecosystems. However, studies of such effects are often limited in their spatial and temporal scope. Here, we contrast multi-spe... Read More about Nationwide trophic cascades: changes in avian community structure driven by ungulates.

The drivers of avian abundance: patterns in the relative importance of climate and land use (2015)
Journal Article
Howard, C., Stephens, P., Pearce-Higgins, J., Gregory, R., & Willis, S. (2015). The drivers of avian abundance: patterns in the relative importance of climate and land use. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 24(11), 1249-1260. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12377

Aim: Climate and land use can have important effects on the local abundances of species, but few studies have investigated the relative impacts of these factors. Here, we quantify the relative importance of climate, land use and surrounding populatio... Read More about The drivers of avian abundance: patterns in the relative importance of climate and land use.

Assessing the performance of EU nature legislation in protecting target bird species in an era of climate change (2015)
Journal Article
Sanderson, F., Pople, R., Leronymidou, C., Burfield, I., Gregory, R., Willis, S., …Donald, P. (2016). Assessing the performance of EU nature legislation in protecting target bird species in an era of climate change. Conservation Letters, 9(3), 172-180. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12196

International legislation forms a cornerstone of conservation, yet its efficacy is rarely quantified. We assess whether species listed on Annex I of the European Union (EU) Birds Directive, for which EU Member States are obliged to implement special... Read More about Assessing the performance of EU nature legislation in protecting target bird species in an era of climate change.

Environmental change and long-term body mass declines in an alpine mammal (2014)
Journal Article
Mason, T., Apollonio, M., Chirichella, R., Willis, S., & Stephens, P. (2014). Environmental change and long-term body mass declines in an alpine mammal. Frontiers in Zoology, 11, Article 69. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-014-0069-6

IntroductionClimate and environmental change have driven widespread changes in body size, particularly declines, across a range of taxonomic groups in recent decades. Size declines could substantially impact on the functioning of ecosystems. To date,... Read More about Environmental change and long-term body mass declines in an alpine mammal.

Predicting potential responses to future climate in an alpine ungulate: interspecific interactions exceed climate effects (2014)
Journal Article
Mason, T., Stephens, P., Apollonio, M., & Willis, S. (2014). Predicting potential responses to future climate in an alpine ungulate: interspecific interactions exceed climate effects. Global Change Biology, 20(12), 3872-3882. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12641

The altitudinal shifts of many montane populations are lagging behind climate change. Understanding habitual, daily behavioural rhythms, and their climatic and environmental influences, could shed light on the constraints on long-term upslope range-s... Read More about Predicting potential responses to future climate in an alpine ungulate: interspecific interactions exceed climate effects.

Improving species distribution models: the value of data on abundance (2014)
Journal Article
Howard, C., Stephens, P. A., Pearce-Higgins, J. W., Gregory, R. D., & Willis, S. G. (2014). Improving species distribution models: the value of data on abundance. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 5(6), 506-513. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.12184

Species distribution models (SDMs) are important tools for forecasting the potential impacts of future environmental changes but debate remains over the most robust modelling approaches for making projections. Suggested improvements in SDMs vary from... Read More about Improving species distribution models: the value of data on abundance.

Intraseasonal variation in reproductive effort: young males finish last (2012)
Journal Article
Mason, T., Stephens, P., Willis, S., Chirichella, R., Apollonio, M., & Richards, S. (2012). Intraseasonal variation in reproductive effort: young males finish last. The American Naturalist, 180(6), 823-830. https://doi.org/10.1086/668082

Age-dependent reproductive timing has been observed in females of a number of species; older females often breed earlier in the season and experience higher reproductive success as a result. However, to date, evidence for within-season variation in r... Read More about Intraseasonal variation in reproductive effort: young males finish last.

Prey Selection by an Apex Predator: The Importance of Sampling Uncertainty (2012)
Journal Article
Davis, M., Stephens, P., Willis, S., Bassi, E., Marcon, A., Donaggio, E., …Apollonio, M. (2012). Prey Selection by an Apex Predator: The Importance of Sampling Uncertainty. PLoS ONE, 7(10), Article e47894. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047894

The impact of predation on prey populations has long been a focus of ecologists, but a firm understanding of the factors influencing prey selection, a key predictor of that impact, remains elusive. High levels of variability observed in prey selectio... Read More about Prey Selection by an Apex Predator: The Importance of Sampling Uncertainty.

Contrasting life histories in neighbouring populations of a large mammal (2011)
Journal Article
Mason, T., Chirichella, R., Richards, S., Stephens, P., Willis, S., & Apollonio, M. (2011). Contrasting life histories in neighbouring populations of a large mammal. PLoS ONE, 6(11), Article e28002. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028002

Background: A fundamental life history question is how individuals should allocate resources to reproduction optimally over time (reproductive allocation). The reproductive restraint hypothesis predicts that reproductive effort (RE; the allocation of... Read More about Contrasting life histories in neighbouring populations of a large mammal.