0000000001326822
AUTHOR
Martijn Van De Pol
Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less responsive to climatic variation
AbstractThe phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species’ range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two European songbirds covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity compared with those in evergreen and mixed habitats. Strikingly, however, the lowest sensitivity was seen in populations that had experienced the greatest change in climate. Therefore, we predict that the st…
Cumulative Human Impacts on biRd Populations (CHIRP): A multi-tiered approach to conserving the near-threatened Eurasian Oystercatcher
The Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) is a partially migratory meadow bird, and wading bird, that has declined substantially in recent decades. The cause of the decline may be due to several threats which vary in space and time. For example, some threats occur principally in winter like climate change, human disturbance or competition whilst others occur in summer, of which some only occur inland like agricultural intensification whilst shellfisheries or flooding are in coastal areas. Therefore, the relative impact of these threats, and how these impacts accumulate across the annual cycle will depend upon where an individual is in space and time, i.e. where it breeds and winter…