Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts

Unravelling the environmental factors driving species distribution and abundance is crucial in ecology and conservation. Both climatic and land cover factors are often used to describe species distribution/abundance, but their interrelations have been scarcely investigated. Climatic factors may inde...

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Autores principales:	Francesco Ceresa, Petra Kranebitter, Juan S. Monrós, Franco Rizzolli, Mattia Brambilla
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:	Elevational gradient Bird ecology Thermal niche European Alps High-elevation species Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/421464eb680048e6a06c3685aa401821
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:421464eb680048e6a06c3685aa4018212021-12-05T15:05:08ZDisentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts10.7717/peerj.125602167-8359https://doaj.org/article/421464eb680048e6a06c3685aa4018212021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://peerj.com/articles/12560.pdfhttps://peerj.com/articles/12560/https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359Unravelling the environmental factors driving species distribution and abundance is crucial in ecology and conservation. Both climatic and land cover factors are often used to describe species distribution/abundance, but their interrelations have been scarcely investigated. Climatic factors may indeed affect species both directly and indirectly, e.g., by influencing vegetation structure and composition. We aimed to disentangle the direct and indirect effects (via vegetation) of local temperature on bird abundance across a wide elevational gradient in the European Alps, ranging from montane forests to high-elevation open areas. In 2018, we surveyed birds by using point counts and collected fine-scale land cover and temperature data from 109 sampling points. We used structural equation modelling to estimate direct and indirect effects of local climate on bird abundance. We obtained a sufficient sample for 15 species, characterized by a broad variety of ecological requirements. For all species we found a significant indirect effect of local temperatures via vegetation on bird abundance. Direct effects of temperature were less common and were observed in seven woodland/shrubland species, including only mountain generalists; in these cases, local temperatures showed a positive effect, suggesting that on average our study area is likely colder than the thermal optimum of those species. The generalized occurrence of indirect temperature effects within our species set demonstrates the importance of considering both climate and land cover changes to obtain more reliable predictions of future species distribution/abundance. In fact, many species may be largely tracking suitable habitat rather than thermal niches, especially among homeotherm organisms like birds.Francesco CeresaPetra KranebitterJuan S. MonrósFranco RizzolliMattia BrambillaPeerJ Inc.articleElevational gradientBird ecologyThermal nicheEuropean AlpsHigh-elevation speciesMedicineRENPeerJ, Vol 9, p e12560 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Elevational gradient Bird ecology Thermal niche European Alps High-elevation species Medicine R
spellingShingle	Elevational gradient Bird ecology Thermal niche European Alps High-elevation species Medicine R Francesco Ceresa Petra Kranebitter Juan S. Monrós Franco Rizzolli Mattia Brambilla Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts
description	Unravelling the environmental factors driving species distribution and abundance is crucial in ecology and conservation. Both climatic and land cover factors are often used to describe species distribution/abundance, but their interrelations have been scarcely investigated. Climatic factors may indeed affect species both directly and indirectly, e.g., by influencing vegetation structure and composition. We aimed to disentangle the direct and indirect effects (via vegetation) of local temperature on bird abundance across a wide elevational gradient in the European Alps, ranging from montane forests to high-elevation open areas. In 2018, we surveyed birds by using point counts and collected fine-scale land cover and temperature data from 109 sampling points. We used structural equation modelling to estimate direct and indirect effects of local climate on bird abundance. We obtained a sufficient sample for 15 species, characterized by a broad variety of ecological requirements. For all species we found a significant indirect effect of local temperatures via vegetation on bird abundance. Direct effects of temperature were less common and were observed in seven woodland/shrubland species, including only mountain generalists; in these cases, local temperatures showed a positive effect, suggesting that on average our study area is likely colder than the thermal optimum of those species. The generalized occurrence of indirect temperature effects within our species set demonstrates the importance of considering both climate and land cover changes to obtain more reliable predictions of future species distribution/abundance. In fact, many species may be largely tracking suitable habitat rather than thermal niches, especially among homeotherm organisms like birds.
format	article
author	Francesco Ceresa Petra Kranebitter Juan S. Monrós Franco Rizzolli Mattia Brambilla
author_facet	Francesco Ceresa Petra Kranebitter Juan S. Monrós Franco Rizzolli Mattia Brambilla
author_sort	Francesco Ceresa
title	Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts
title_short	Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts
title_full	Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts
title_fullStr	Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts
title_full_unstemmed	Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts
title_sort	disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts
publisher	PeerJ Inc.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/421464eb680048e6a06c3685aa401821
work_keys_str_mv	AT francescoceresa disentanglingdirectandindirecteffectsoflocaltemperatureonabundanceofmountainbirdsandimplicationsforunderstandingglobalchangeimpacts AT petrakranebitter disentanglingdirectandindirecteffectsoflocaltemperatureonabundanceofmountainbirdsandimplicationsforunderstandingglobalchangeimpacts AT juansmonros disentanglingdirectandindirecteffectsoflocaltemperatureonabundanceofmountainbirdsandimplicationsforunderstandingglobalchangeimpacts AT francorizzolli disentanglingdirectandindirecteffectsoflocaltemperatureonabundanceofmountainbirdsandimplicationsforunderstandingglobalchangeimpacts AT mattiabrambilla disentanglingdirectandindirecteffectsoflocaltemperatureonabundanceofmountainbirdsandimplicationsforunderstandingglobalchangeimpacts
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Disentangling direct and indirect effects of local temperature on abundance of mountain birds and implications for understanding global change impacts

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