Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents

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2016-04-01Author
Stephens, Philip A.
Mason, Lucy R.
Green, Rhys E.
Gregory, Richard D.
Sauer, John R.
Alison, Jamie
Aunins, Ainars
Brotons, Lluís
Butchart, Stuart H. M.
Campedelli, Tommaso
Chodkiewicz, Tomasz
Chylarecki, Przemysław
Crowe, Olivia
Elts, Jaanus
Escandell, Virginia
Foppen, Ruud
Heldbjerg, Henning
Herrando, Sergi
Husby, Magne
Jiguet, Frédéric
Lehikoinen, Aleksi
Lindström, Åke
Noble, David G.
Paquet, Jean-Yves
Reif, Jiří
Sattler, Thomas
Szép, Tibor
Teufelbauer, Norbert
Trautmann, Sven
van Strien, Arco
van Turnhout, Chris A.M.
Vorisek, Petr
Willis, Stephen G.
Suggested citation
Stephens, Philip A.;
Mason, Lucy R.;
Green, Rhys E.;
Gregory, Richard D.;
Sauer, John R.;
Alison, Jamie;
...
Willis, Stephen G..
(2016)
.
Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents.
Science, 2016, vol. 352, núm. 6281, p. 84-87.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4858.
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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. Here, we use long-term monitoring of the abundance of breeding birds across Europe and the USA to produce, for both regions, composite population indices for two groups of species: those for which climate suitability has been either improving or declining since 1980. The ratio of these composite indices, the Climate Impact Indicator (CII), reflects the divergent fates of species favored or disadvantaged by climate change. The trend in CII is positive and similar in the two regions. On both continents, interspecific and spatial variation in population abundance trends are well predicted by climate
suitability trends.