Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity

Stewart, Peter S.; Voskamp, Alke; Santini, Luca; Biber, Matthias F.; Devenish, Adam J.M.; Hof, Christian; Willis, Stephen G.; Tobias, Joseph A.

Abstract

Climate change is predicted to drive geographical range shifts, leading to fluctuations in species richness (SR) worldwide. However, the effect of these changes on functional diversity (FD) remains unclear, in part because comprehensive species-level trait data are generally lacking at global scales. Here, we use morphometric and ecological traits for 8268 bird species to estimate the impact of climate change on avian FD. We show that future bird assemblages are likely to undergo substantial shifts in trait structure, with a magnitude of change greater than predicted from SR alone, and a direction of change varying according to geographical location and trophic guild. For example, our models predict that FD of insect predators will increase at higher latitudes with concurrent losses at mid-latitudes, whereas FD of seed dispersing birds will fluctuate across the tropics. Our findings highlight the potential for climate change to drive continental-scale shifts in avian FD with implications for ecosystem function and resilience.

Citation

Stewart, P. S., Voskamp, A., Santini, L., Biber, M. F., Devenish, A. J., Hof, C., …Tobias, J. A. (2022). Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity. Ecology Letters, 25(3), 673-685. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13830

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 18, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 24, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-03
• Deposit Date: Aug 3, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 3, 2022
• Journal: Ecology Letters
• Print ISSN: 1461-023X
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-0248
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 673-685
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13830
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1194899