Have bird distributions shifted along an elevational gradient on a tropical mountain?

Abstract

An upward shift in elevation is one of the most conspicuous species responses to climate change. Nevertheless, downward shifts and, apparently, the absences of response have also been recently reported. Given the growing evidence of multiple responses of species distributions due to climate change and the paucity of studies in the tropics, we evaluated the response of a montane bird community to climate change, without the confounding effects of land‐use change. To test for elevational shifts, we compared the distribution of 21 avian species in 1998 and 2015 using occupancy models. The historical data set was based on point counts, whereas the contemporary data set was based on acoustic monitoring. We detected a similar number of species in historical (36) and contemporary data sets (33). We show an overall pattern of no significant change in range limits for most species, although there was a significant shift in the range limit of eight species (38%). Elevation limits shifted mostly upward, and this pattern was more common for upper than lower limits. Our results highlight the variability of species responses to climate change and illustrate how acoustic monitoring provides an easy and powerful way to monitor animal populations along elevational gradients.

Changing ecological communities along an elevation gradient in seasonally dry tropical forest on Hispaniola (Sierra Martín García, Dominican Republic)

“…On St John, U.S. Virgin Islands, on the other hand, the differences in winter bird communities between SDTF and moist forest were minor, although species were detected more frequently in mature moist forest, and certain fruiting plant species were associated with frugivorous species of birds (Steadman et al, ). Also in the West Indies, a rigorous survey of birds (from 100 to 1,074 m elevation) in Puerto Rico from moist‐to‐very wet forest (no SDTF) revealed significant upward elevational shifts between 1998 and 2015 in 8 of the 21 species analyzed (Campos‐Cerqueira et al, ).…”

“…Precipitation and temperature regimes, along with changes in atmospheric pressure, radiation, and cloudiness, strongly affect the bioclimatic environment (water balance, humidity, thermal, and light regimes) for terrestrial ecosystems (Körner, 2007). While such patterns have long been associated with the distribution and diversity of plant and animal species and communities (von Humboldt & Bonpland, 1805;Terborgh, 1971;Gentry, 1988), there is a renewed call to study ecosystems along tropical elevation gradients as laboratories for evaluating global change (Malhi et al, 2010;Campos-Cerqueira et al, 2017).…”

Species Richness (of Insects) Drives the Use of Acoustic Space in the Tropics

“…Monitoring fauna, particularly in forests, is challenging, yet we rely on these data to understand changes in communities and populations, as well as the implications of anthropogenic activities [21] and climate change [22]. In general, fauna is monitored using intrusive and often intensive methods such as transects, point counts and mark/recapture.…”

It's time to listen: there is much to be learned from the sounds of tropical ecosystems

“…For instance, PAM can improve our understanding of ecological processes across entire elevational gradients helping us to track the impact of climate change on animal distributions (Campos‐Cerqueira et al . ).…”

“…Furthermore, acoustic data collected over the long‐term can be used to answer broader questions regarding the effects of environmental change on species abundance, phenology, distribution (Campos‐Cerqueira & Aide , Campos‐Cerqueira et al . ), and behavior (Llusia et al . , Narins & Meenderink ).…”