Ice age unfrozen: severe effect of the last interglacial, not glacial, climate change on East Asian avifauna.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The glacial-interglacial cycles in the Pleistocene caused repeated range expansion and contraction of species in several regions in the world. However, it remains uncertain whether such climate oscillations had similar impact on East Asian biota, despite its widely recognized importance in global biodiversity. Here we use both molecular and ecological niche profiles on 11 East Asian avian species with various elevational ranges to reveal their response to the late Pleistocene climate changes.

Results

The ecological niche models (ENM) consistently showed that these avian species might substantially contract their ranges to the south during the Last Interglacial period (LIG) and expanded their northern range margins through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), leading to

SUBMITTER: Dong F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5719578 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature