Birds on the move in the face of climate change: High species turnover in northern Europe.

ABSTRACT: Species richness is predicted to increase in the northern latitudes in the warming climate due to ranges of many southern species expanding northwards. We studied changes in the composition of the whole avifauna and in bird species richness in a period of already warming climate in Finland (in northern Europe) covering 1,100 km in south-north gradient across the boreal zone (over 300,000 km²). We compared bird species richness and species-specific changes (for all 235 bird species that occur in Finland) in range size (number of squares occupied) and range shifts (measured as median of area of occupancy) based on bird atlas studies between 1974-1989 and 2006-2010. In addition, we tested how the habitat preference and migration strategy of species explain species-specific variatio

SUBMITTER: Virkkala R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5648647 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature