Microgeography, Not Just Latitude, Drives Climate Overlap on Mountains from Tropical to Polar Ecosystems

Klinges, David H.; Scheffers, Brett R.

doi:10.1086/711873

Cited by 34 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…Microclimates are environmental conditions at the spatial and temporal scale of organisms (usually < 1 m and < 1 hr) and can differ substantially from macroclimate (Klinges & Scheffers, 2020). At the microclimatic scale, conditions can be more extreme but organisms have access to an increased environmental heterogeneity (e.g., vegetation cover, shelter), which aids them to reduce exposure to environmental stresses (e.g., heat load and dehydration; Potter et al, 2013;Scheffers et al, 2014;Woods et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A hierarchical approach to understanding physiological associations with climate

Anderson

White

Chapple

et al. 2021

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim: Our understanding of species' responses to climate depends on choosing the scale for the analysis. Processes driving physiological adaptation that occur at the small spatial scales most relevant to animals may be masked in correlations between organismal traits and broad-scale climatologies, but the extent to which this undermines our understanding of the macroevolution of physiological traits is unknown. Location: Global.Time period: Current.Major taxa studied: Lizards. Methods:We investigated relationships between physiological traits (water loss rate, standard and field metabolic rates, thermal preferences and critical thermal limits) and environmental conditions in 369 lizard species across sets of environmental predictors representing different processes across hierarchically nested spatial scales: macroclimate, microclimate and biophysical. Results:We found that microclimatic and biophysical predictors had greater explanatory power than macroclimatic predictors for all traits except standard and field metabolic rates. Across spatial scales, standard metabolic rate was negatively related to maximum temperatures whereas field metabolic rate was positively related to minimum temperatures. Thermal preference and critical limits showed expected relationships with environmental temperature, but preferred temperature and critical thermal maxima were most strongly associated with soil water potential, as was evaporative water loss. Main conclusions:The use of proximal environmental predictors, via the principles of microclimatic and biophysical modelling, can be more informative in comparative physiological analyses than the more traditional application of macroclimatic data.In our study it led us to new, testable hypotheses about the role of habitat structure mediated by soil moisture. New datasets and computational methods mean that proximal environmental predictors can be readily computed for any kind of organism and their application to comparative studies should improve our understanding of physiological evolution.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A hierarchical approach to understanding physiological associations with climate

Anderson

White

Chapple

et al. 2021

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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“…Mountains cover a quarter of Earth's land surface, and shallow seas comprise over a tenth of the total global seabed area (Costello et al 2010, Karagulle et al 2017). While vast distances must be traveled to realize significant changes in ecology or climatology across latitudinal gradients, comparable variation can be experienced by traversing only a few hundred meters up or down a mountainside (Körner 2007, Klinges and Scheffers 2020). Similarly, physical properties of the water column generate abiotic and biotic gradients over small distances in depth, compared to the thousands of kilometers that would be required for the same apparent change across latitude (Sprintall and Cronin 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonality, niche management and vertical migration in landscapes of relief

John

Post

2021

Ecography

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Landscapes of vertical relief, such as mountains and continental slopes, intensify ecological and climatological variation within narrow spatial windows. Seasonal vertical migrants exploit this variation during their residence in, and movements between, vertically stratified seasonal ranges. Animals in terrestrial, marine and even human‐ecological systems undergo similar patterns of seasonal vertical movements. The diversity of arenas in which vertical migration evolved lends insight to the factors promoting seasonal use of landscapes of relief. Because animals must contend with both endogenous circannual rhythms and exogenous environmental seasonality, vertical migrants may be sensitive to inconsistent change across stratified seasonal ranges under climate change. To better understand how ongoing and future climatic and environmental changes are likely to impact vertical migrants, we examine vertical migration in the context of niche tracking and niche switching. Whereas niche trackers minimize variation in realized environmental conditions throughout their seasonal movements, niche switchers undergo seasonal transitions in realized niche space. These strategies mediate the relationship between migrants and their changing environment, and can be used to forecast impacts of future change and effectively conserve systems of vertical migration. Niche tracking may be hindered by inconsistent or unpredictable environmental change along a single niche axis across strata, while niche switching may be sensitive to incongruous spatiotemporal change across factors. We suggest that climate change will affect seasonal patterns in vertical environments discontinuously across time, space and strata, and that vertical migrants are likely to face additional anthropogenic threats that interact with environmental seasonality. Conservation of vertical migrants should prioritize the availability of, and facilitate movement between, stratified seasonal ranges.

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“…The timing of snowmelt is therefore a critical determinant for the legacy effects of winter snow regimes on the snow-free season (Wilcox et al 2019). Changes in the depth of snow can have very different consequences for the energy balance of the ecosystem (Yoshino 1984;Klinges and Scheffers 2021) and for the ecology and activity of plants and soil microbes, depending on the timing of onset of snow accumulation in the autumn and the timing of snowmelt in the spring.…”

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confidence: 99%

Winters are changing: snow effects on Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems

et al. 2022

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Snow is an important driver of ecosystem processes in cold biomes. Snow accumulation determines ground temperature, light conditions and moisture availability during winter. It also affects the growing season’s start and end, and plant access to moisture and nutrients. Here, we review the current knowledge of the snow cover’s role for vegetation, plant-animal interactions, permafrost conditions, microbial processes and biogeochemical cycling. We also compare studies of natural snow gradients with snow manipulation studies, altering snow depth and duration, to assess time scale difference of these approaches. The number of studies on snow in tundra ecosystems has increased considerably in recent years, yet we still lack a comprehensive overview of how altered snow conditions will affect these ecosystems. In specific, we found a mismatch in the timing of snowmelt when comparing studies of natural snow gradients with snow manipulations. We found that snowmelt timing achieved by manipulative studies (average 7.9 days advance, 5.5 days delay) were substantially lower than those observed over spatial gradients (mean range of 56 days) or due to interannual variation (mean range of 32 days). Differences between snow study approaches need to be accounted for when projecting snow dynamics and their impact on ecosystems in future climates.

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Microgeography, Not Just Latitude, Drives Climate Overlap on Mountains from Tropical to Polar Ecosystems

Cited by 34 publications

References 118 publications

A hierarchical approach to understanding physiological associations with climate

A hierarchical approach to understanding physiological associations with climate

Seasonality, niche management and vertical migration in landscapes of relief

Winters are changing: snow effects on Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems

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