Geographic range limits of species

Gaston, Kevin J.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0100

Cited by 187 publications

(178 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…It seems likely that most insects experience high rates of parasitism and disease ), although few specific case studies for butterflies have been described (Revels 2006). The abundance and species richness of natural enemies probably declines with latitude (Rosenzweig 1995), such that butterflies on colder sites in northern England experience much lower exposure to natural enemies than those in the south (Menendez et al 2008, Gaston 2009). If abundance in the absence of natural enemies (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Butterfly abundance in a warming climate: patterns in space and time are not congruent

et al. 2010

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We present a model of butterfly abundance on transects in England. The model indicates a significant role for climate, but the direction of association is counter to expectation: butterfly population density is higher on sites with a cooler climate. However, the effect is highly heterogeneous, with one in five species displaying a net positive association. We use this model to project the population-level effects of climate warming for the year 2080, using a medium emissions scenario. The results suggest that most populations and species will decline markedly, but that the total number of butterflies will increase as communities become dominated by a few common species. In particular, Maniola jurtina is predicted to make up nearly half of all butterflies on UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) transects by 2080.These results contradict the accepted wisdom that most insect populations will grow as the climate becomes warmer. Indeed, our predictions contrast strongly with those derived from inter-annual variation in abundance, emphasizing that we lack a mechanistic understanding about the factors driving butterfly population dynamics over large spatial and temporal scales.Our study underscores the difficulty of predicting future population trends and reveals the naivety of simple space-for-time substitutions, which our projections share with species distribution modelling.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Butterfly abundance in a warming climate: patterns in space and time are not congruent

et al. 2010

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“…Range limits, by latitude or with elevation, have received increasing interest lately (e.g. Gaston, 2009), particularly with the increasing research on the impacts of climate change. Also, population trends are today combined with projections of future distribution ranges in order to define vulnerability indexes for species (Gregory et al, 2009).…”

Section: Shifts In the Elevational Distribution Of Breeding Birds In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Swiss birds tracking climate change?

Maggini¹,

Lehmann²,

Kéry³

et al. 2011

Ecological Modelling

148

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a b s t r a c tClimate change is affecting biodiversity worldwide inducing species to either "move, adapt or die". In this paper we propose a conceptual framework for analysing range shifts, namely a catalogue of the possible patterns of change in the distribution of a species along elevational or other environmental gradients and an improved quantitative methodology to identify and objectively describe these patterns. Patterns are defined in terms of changes occurring at the leading, trailing or both edges of the distribution: (a) leading edge expansion, (b) trailing edge retraction, (c) range expansion, (d) optimum shift, (e) expansion, (f) retraction, and (g) shift. The methodology is based on the modelling of species distributions along a gradient using generalized additive models (GAMs). Separate models are calibrated for two distinct periods of assessment and response curves are compared over five reference points. Changes occurred at these points are formalized into a code that ultimately designates the corresponding change pattern. We tested the proposed methodology using data from the Swiss national common breeding bird survey. The elevational distributions of 95 bird species were modelled for the periods 1999-2002 and 2004-2007 and significant upward shifts (all patterns confounded) were identified for 35% of the species. Over the same period, an increase in mean temperature was registered for Switzerland. In consideration of the short period covered by the case study, assessed change patterns are considered to correspond to intermediate patterns in an ongoing shifting process. However, similar patterns can be determined by habitat barriers, land use/land cover changes, competition with concurrent or invasive species or different warming rates at different elevations.

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“…The causes and genetic consequences of range limits are key issues in ecology and evolution (Bridle and Vines, 2007;Gaston, 2009a) that directly relate to environmental challenges such as biological invasions, habitat loss, climate change and emerging diseases (Gaston, 2009b). The current climate change is causing dramatic changes in species distributions (David and Shaw, 2001) and has revived the interest in the evolutionary and ecological role of edge populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid range expansion increases genetic differentiation while causing limited reduction in genetic diversity in a damselfly

et al. 2013

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Many ectothermic species are currently expanding their geographic range due to global warming. This can modify the population genetic diversity and structure of these species because of genetic drift during the colonization of new areas. Although the genetic signatures of historical range expansions have been investigated in an array of species, the genetic consequences of natural, contemporary range expansions have received little attention, with the only studies available focusing on range expansions along a narrow front. We investigate the genetic consequences of a natural range expansion in the Mediterranean damselfly Coenagrion scitulum, which is currently rapidly expanding along a broad front in different directions. We assessed genetic diversity and genetic structure using 12 microsatellite markers in five centrally located populations and five recently established populations at the edge of the geographic distribution. Our results suggest that, although a marginal significant decrease in the allelic richness was found in the edge populations, genetic diversity has been preserved during the range expansion of this species. Nevertheless, edge populations were genetically more differentiated compared with core populations, suggesting genetic drift during the range expansion. The smaller effective population sizes of the edge populations compared with central populations also suggest a contribution of genetic drift after colonization. We argue and document that range expansion along multiple axes of a broad expansion front generates little reduction in genetic diversity, yet stronger differentiation of the edge populations.

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Geographic range limits of species

Cited by 187 publications

References 22 publications

Butterfly abundance in a warming climate: patterns in space and time are not congruent

Butterfly abundance in a warming climate: patterns in space and time are not congruent

Are Swiss birds tracking climate change?

Rapid range expansion increases genetic differentiation while causing limited reduction in genetic diversity in a damselfly

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