Climate change or land use dynamics: do we know what climate change indicators indicate?

ABSTRACT: Different components of global change can have interacting effects on biodiversity and this may influence our ability to detect the specific consequences of climate change through biodiversity indicators. Here, we analyze whether climate change indicators can be affected by land use dynamics that are not directly determined by climate change. To this aim, we analyzed three community-level indicators of climate change impacts that are based on the optimal thermal environment and average latitude of the distribution of bird species present at local communities. We used multiple regression models to relate the variation in climate change indicators to: i) environmental temperature; and ii) three landscape gradients reflecting important current land use change processes (land abandonment, fire

SUBMITTER: Clavero M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3080866 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature