All Outputs (84)

Spatial variation in spring arrival patterns of Afro‐Palaearctic bird migration across Europe (2024)
Journal Article
Border, J. A., Boersch‐Supan, P. H., Pearce‐Higgins, J. W., Hewson, C. M., Howard, C., Stephens, P. A., …Baillie, S. R. (2024). Spatial variation in spring arrival patterns of Afro‐Palaearctic bird migration across Europe. Global Ecology and Biogeography, Article e13850. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13850

Aim: Geographical patterns of migrant species arrival have been little studied, despite their relevance to global change responses. Here, we quantify continent-wide inter-specific variation in spatio-temporal patterns of spring arrival of 30 common m... Read More about Spatial variation in spring arrival patterns of Afro‐Palaearctic bird migration across Europe.

Monitoring wader breeding productivity (2023)
Journal Article
Jarrett, D., Lehikoinen, A., & Willis, S. (2023). Monitoring wader breeding productivity. Ibis: International Journal of Avian Science, https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13298

A robust understanding of the mechanisms driving demographic change in wild animal populations is fundamental to the delivery of effective conservation interventions. Demographic change can be driven by variation in adult survival, recruitment of juv... Read More about Monitoring wader breeding productivity.

Explaining and predicting animal migration under global change (2023)
Journal Article
Howard, C., Mason, T. H. E., Baillie, S. R., Border, J., Hewson, C. M., Houston, A. I., …Stephens, P. A. (2023). Explaining and predicting animal migration under global change. Diversity and Distributions, https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13797

Many migratory species are declining due to global environmental change. Yet, their complex annual cycles make unravelling the impacts of potential drivers such as climate and land-use change on migrations a major challenge. Identifying where, when a... Read More about Explaining and predicting animal migration under global change.

Local colonisations and extinctions of European birds are poorly explained by changes in climate suitability (2023)
Journal Article
Howard, C., Marjakangas, E., Morán-Ordóñez, A., Milanesi, P., Abuladze, A., Aghababyan, K., …Willis, S. G. (2023). Local colonisations and extinctions of European birds are poorly explained by changes in climate suitability. Nature Communications, 14(1), Article 4304. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39093-1

Climate change has been associated with both latitudinal and elevational shifts in species’ ranges. The extent, however, to which climate change has driven recent range shifts alongside other putative drivers remains uncertain. Here, we use the chang... Read More about Local colonisations and extinctions of European birds are poorly explained by changes in climate suitability.

The phenology and clutch size of UK Blue Tits does not differ with woodland composition (2023)
Journal Article
Branston, C. J., Whittingham, M. J., Phillimore, A. B., Leech, D., & Willis, S. G. (2023). The phenology and clutch size of UK Blue Tits does not differ with woodland composition. Ibis: International Journal of Avian Science, https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13248

The deciduous tree-herbivorous caterpillar-insectivorous bird food chain is a well-studied system for investigating the impacts of climate change across trophic levels. To date, across Europe, most attention has focused on the impacts of increasing s... Read More about The phenology and clutch size of UK Blue Tits does not differ with woodland composition.

Ecological barriers mediate spatiotemporal shifts of bird communities at a continental scale (2023)
Journal Article
Marjakangas, E., Bosco, L., Versluijs, M., Xu, Y., Santangeli, A., Holopainen, S., …Lehikoinen, A. (2023). Ecological barriers mediate spatiotemporal shifts of bird communities at a continental scale. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(23), Article 213330120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213330120

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 shif... Read More about Ecological barriers mediate spatiotemporal shifts of bird communities at a continental scale.

Drivers of the changing abundance of European birds at two spatial scales (2023)
Journal Article
Gregory, R., Eaton, M. A., Burfield, I., Grice, P. V., Howard, C., Klvaňová, A., …Burns, F. (2023). Drivers of the changing abundance of European birds at two spatial scales. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1881), Article 20220198. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0198

Detecting biodiversity change and identifying its causes is challenging because biodiversity is multifaceted and temporal data often contain bias. Here, we model temporal change in species' abundance and biomass by using extensive data describing the... Read More about Drivers of the changing abundance of European birds at two spatial scales.

Remote monitoring of short-term body mass variation in savanna ungulates (2023)
Journal Article
Fuentes-Allende, N., Stephens, P., MacTavish, L., MacTavish, D., & Willis, S. (2023). Remote monitoring of short-term body mass variation in savanna ungulates. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.338

Large herbivores in seasonal environments often experience mass variation due to temporal changes in the availability of critical resources like water and forage, as well as due to breeding events. Yet the documentation of mass variation in mammals o... Read More about Remote monitoring of short-term body mass variation in savanna ungulates.

dynamicSDM: An R package for species geographical distribution and abundance modelling at high spatiotemporal resolution (2023)
Journal Article
Dobson, R., Challinor, A. J., Cheke, R. A., Jennings, S., Willis, S. G., & Dallimer, M. (2023). dynamicSDM: An R package for species geographical distribution and abundance modelling at high spatiotemporal resolution. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 14(5), 1190-1199. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.14101

1. Species distribution models (SDM) are widely applied to understand changing species geographical distribution and abundance patterns. However, existing SDM tools are inherently static and inadequate for modelling species distributions that are dri... Read More about dynamicSDM: An R package for species geographical distribution and abundance modelling at high spatiotemporal resolution.

Projected climate change impacts on the phylogenetic diversity of the world's terrestrial birds: more than species numbers (2022)
Journal Article
Voskamp, A., Hof, C., Biber, M. F., Böhning-Gaese, K., Hickler, T., Niamir, A., …Fritz, S. A. (2022). Projected climate change impacts on the phylogenetic diversity of the world's terrestrial birds: more than species numbers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1979), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2184

Ongoing climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. As abiotic tolerances and dispersal abilities vary, species-specific responses have the potential to further amplify or ameliorate the ensuing impacts on species assemblages. Here, we investig... Read More about Projected climate change impacts on the phylogenetic diversity of the world's terrestrial birds: more than species numbers.

Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity (2022)
Journal Article
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

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... Read More about Global impacts of climate change on avian functional diversity.

A framework for climate change adaptation indicators for the natural environment (2022)
Journal Article
Pearce-Higgins, J., Antão, L., Bates, R., Bowgen, K., Bradshaw, C., Duffield, S., …Morecroft, M. (2022). A framework for climate change adaptation indicators for the natural environment. Ecological Indicators, 136, Article 108690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108690

Impacts of climate change on natural and human systems will become increasingly severe as the magnitude of climate change increases. Climate change adaptation interventions to address current and projected impacts are thus paramount. Yet, evidence on... Read More about A framework for climate change adaptation indicators for the natural environment.

Where nothing stands still: quantifying nomadism in Australian arid-zone birds (2021)
Journal Article
Gibson, M. R., Runge, C. A., Stephens, P. A., Fuller, R. A., & Willis, S. G. (2022). Where nothing stands still: quantifying nomadism in Australian arid-zone birds. Landscape Ecology, 37(1), 191-208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01343-2

Context: Nomadism is a movement strategy in response to non-seasonal environmental variability. Knowledge of nomadic species movements is poor but is necessary to understand life histories and develop appropriate conservation strategies. Objectives:... Read More about Where nothing stands still: quantifying nomadism in Australian arid-zone birds.

Phenological trends in the pre‐ and post‐breeding migration of long‐distance migratory birds (2021)
Journal Article
Lawrence, K. B., Barlow, C. R., Bensusan, K., Perez, C., & Willis, S. G. (2022). Phenological trends in the pre‐ and post‐breeding migration of long‐distance migratory birds. Global Change Biology, 28(2), 375-389. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15916

Phenological mismatch is often cited as a putative driver of population declines in long-distance migratory birds. The mechanisms and cues utilised to advance breeding ground arrival will impact the adaptability of species to further warming. Further... Read More about Phenological trends in the pre‐ and post‐breeding migration of long‐distance migratory birds.

Site-Based Conservation of Terrestrial Bird Species in the Caribbean and Central and South America Under Climate Change (2021)
Journal Article
Voskamp, A., Butchart, S. H., Baker, D. J., Wilsey, C. B., & Willis, S. G. (2021). Site-Based Conservation of Terrestrial Bird Species in the Caribbean and Central and South America Under Climate Change. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, Article 625432. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.625432

Two of the principal responses of species to recent climate change have been changes in range and abundance, leading to a global reshuffling of the geographic distribution of species. Such range changes may cause species to disappear from areas they... Read More about Site-Based Conservation of Terrestrial Bird Species in the Caribbean and Central and South America Under Climate Change.

Global inequities and political borders challenge nature conservation under climate change (2021)
Journal Article
Titley, M. A., Butchart, S. H., Jones, V. R., Whittingham, M. J., & Willis, S. G. (2021). Global inequities and political borders challenge nature conservation under climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(7), Article e2011204118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011204118

Underlying sociopolitical factors have emerged as important determinants of wildlife population trends and the effectiveness of conservation action. Despite mounting research into the impacts of climate change on nature, there has been little conside... Read More about Global inequities and political borders challenge nature conservation under climate change.

Using indices of species’ potential range to inform conservation status (2021)
Journal Article
Mason, T. H., Stephens, P. A., Gilbert, G., Green, R. E., Wilson, J. D., Jennings, K., …Willis, S. G. (2021). Using indices of species’ potential range to inform conservation status. Ecological Indicators, 123, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107343

Assessments of conservation status are typically based on short-term extinction risk, but the value of indicators that compare the current state of species (e.g., abundance or distribution) to potential baselines is increasingly recognised. The use o... Read More about Using indices of species’ potential range to inform conservation status.

Disentangling the relative roles of climate and land cover change in driving the long-term population trends of European migratory birds (2020)
Journal Article
Howard, C., Stephens, P., Pearce-Higgins, J., Gregory, R., Butchart, S., & Willis, S. (2020). Disentangling the relative roles of climate and land cover change in driving the long-term population trends of European migratory birds. Diversity and Distributions, 26(11), 1442-1455. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13144

Aim: Global declines in the populations of migratory species have been attributed largely to climate change and anthropogenic habitat change. However, the relative contribution of these factors on species’ breeding and non‐breeding ranges is unclear.... Read More about Disentangling the relative roles of climate and land cover change in driving the long-term population trends of European migratory birds.

Automated detection and classification of birdsong: An ensemble approach (2020)
Journal Article
Brooker, S. A., Stephens, P. A., Whittingham, M. J., & Willis, S. G. (2020). Automated detection and classification of birdsong: An ensemble approach. Ecological Indicators, 117, Article 106609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106609

The avian dawn chorus presents a challenging opportunity to test autonomous recording units (ARUs) and associated recogniser software in the types of complex acoustic environments frequently encountered in the natural world. To date, extracting infor... Read More about Automated detection and classification of birdsong: An ensemble approach.

Rapid assessment of avian species richness and abundance using acoustic indices (2020)
Journal Article
Bradfer-Lawrence, T., Bunnefeld, N., Gardner, N., Willis, S. G., & Dent, D. H. (2020). Rapid assessment of avian species richness and abundance using acoustic indices. Ecological Indicators, 115, Article 106400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106400

Accelerating global shifts in climate and land use change are altering natural habitats and species assemblages, making management interventions crucial to halt the biodiversity crisis. Management decisions must be informed by accurate biodiversity a... Read More about Rapid assessment of avian species richness and abundance using acoustic indices.