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Outputs (78)

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.

Population responses of bird populations to climate change on two continents vary with species’ ecological traits but not with direction of change in climate suitability (2019)
Journal Article
Mason, L. R., Green, R. E., Howard, C., Stephens, P. A., Willis, S. G., Aunins, A., …Gregory, R. D. (2019). Population responses of bird populations to climate change on two continents vary with species’ ecological traits but not with direction of change in climate suitability. Climatic Change, 157(3-4), 337-354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02549-9

Climate change is a major global threat to biodiversity with widespread impacts on ecological communities. Evidence for beneficial impacts on populations is perceived to be stronger and more plentiful than that for negative impacts, but few studies h... Read More about Population responses of bird populations to climate change on two continents vary with species’ ecological traits but not with direction of change in climate suitability.

The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages (2019)
Journal Article
Littlewood, N. A., Mason, T. H., Hughes, M., Jacques, R., Whittingham, M. J., & Willis, S. G. (2019). The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. Ecology and Evolution, 9(19), 11089-11101. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613

Conflict between stakeholders with opposing interests can hamper biodiversity conservation. When conflicts become entrenched, evidence from applied ecology can reveal new ways forward for their management. In particular, where disagreement exists ove... Read More about The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages.

The limits to population density in birds and mammals (2019)
Journal Article
Stephens, P., Vieira, M., Willis, S., & Carbone, C. (2019). The limits to population density in birds and mammals. Ecology Letters, 22(4), 654-663. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13227

We address two fundamental ecological questions: what are the limits to animal population density and what determines those limits? We develop simple alternative models to predict population limits in relation to body mass. A model assuming that with... Read More about The limits to population density in birds and mammals.

Bioenergy cropland expansion may offset positive effects of climate change mitigation for global vertebrate diversity (2018)
Journal Article
Hof, C., Voskamp, A., Biber, M. F., Böhning-Gaese, K., Engelhardt, E. K., Niamir, A., …Hickler, T. (2018). Bioenergy cropland expansion may offset positive effects of climate change mitigation for global vertebrate diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(52), 13294-13299. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807745115

Climate and land-use change interactively affect biodiversity. Large-scale expansions of bioenergy have been suggested as an important component for climate change mitigation. Here we use harmonized climate and land-use projections to investigate the... Read More about Bioenergy cropland expansion may offset positive effects of climate change mitigation for global vertebrate diversity.

Tritrophic phenological match-mismatch in space and time (2018)
Journal Article
Burgess, M. D., Smith, K. W., Evans, K. L., Leech, D., Pearce-Higgins, J. W., Branston, C. J., …Phillimore, A. B. (2018). Tritrophic phenological match-mismatch in space and time. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2, 970-975. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0543-1

Increasing temperatures associated with climate change may generate phenological mismatches that disrupt previously synchronous trophic interactions. Most work on mismatch has focused on temporal trends, whereas spatial variation in the degree of tro... Read More about Tritrophic phenological match-mismatch in space and time.