Distribution Trends of Breeding Bird Species in Belarus under Conditions of Global Climate Change

Can Recent Strategies of Bird Diversity Conservation be Effective in the 21st Century in the Face of Increasing Impact of Global Climate Change?

“…In Böhning-Gaese and Lemoine's (2004) opinion, conservation efforts have to focus more on the high-temperature and low-precipitation part than on the low-precipitation part of the latitudinal gradient. Despite the proposition that range shifts have been observed in temperate regions with northward shifts of northern range boundaries and no consistent trend of southern range boundaries (Böhning-Gaese & Lemoine 2004) the results from three Baltic region countries indicate that southern range boundaries undergo shifts too (Žalakevičius 1999, 2001Viksne 2000;Nikiforov 2003;Viksne et al 2005). According to our review, with climate change progressing at the rate forecasted by climatologists in the course of this century, the response of SPA bird species to climate warming via changes of habitats and food resources will not be the same.…”

“…A retreat of some northern species from their southernmost sections of breeding range and extension of many southern species to the north of the breeding ranges are reported in several publications (Tomiałojć 1990(Tomiałojć , 2003Thomas & Lennon 1999;Viksne 2000;Nikiforov 2003;Tomiałojć & Stawarczyk 2003;Viksne et al 2005). Assessment of status of populations of bird species breeding in Lithuanian SPAs in the rapidly changing climate of the 21 st century enables us to forecast future prospects for territories and validity of their designation.…”

“…the Lithuanian breeding population may be in the central or peripheral part of the species range) was identified (Table 1). Some earlier publications proved a tendency for north-eastward shift of ranges in Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus (Žalakevičius 1999, 2001Viksne 2000;Viksne et al 2005;Nikiforov 2003; Fig. 1).…”

“…When breeding birds' ranges shift under the impact of global climate change, not all bird species are threatened or get extinct in some definite territory (Viksne 2000;Nikiforov 2003;Viksne et al 2005;Žalakevičius 2007). For example, in neighbouring Belarus (southward of Lithuania) twenty seven new breeding bird species were recorded during the past 100 years and 25 of them -over the past 50 years (Nikiforov 2003). 69.2% of bird species have spread over the territory of Belarus from the south.…”

“…It is ascertained that global climate change is affecting Earth's ecosystems and their constituent parts -habitats, species, distribution ranges, population state, richness and composition of communities (Burton 1995;Viksne 2000;Peterson et al 2001;Žalakevičius & Žalakevičiūtė 2001;Nikiforov 2003;Böhning-Gaese & Lemoine 2004;Parmesan 2005;Viksne et al 2005;Žalakevičius 1999, 2001Zalakevicius et al 2006;Žalakevičius et al 2006;Newton 2003Newton , 2008Huntley et al 2007). The northern range boundaries of breeding birds are limited by cold temperatures; the southern range limit is determined by such climatic factors as heat or lack of water (Root 1988;Newton 2003Newton , 2008Böhning-Gaese & Lemoine 2004).…”