Butterfly phenology in Mediterranean mountains using space-for-time substitution.

ABSTRACT: Inferring species' responses to climate change in the absence of long-term time series data is a challenge, but can be achieved by substituting space for time. For example, thermal elevational gradients represent suitable proxies to study phenological responses to warming. We used butterfly data from two Mediterranean mountain areas to test whether mean dates of appearance of communities and individual species show a delay with increasing altitude, and an accompanying shortening in the duration of flight periods. We found a 14-day delay in the mean date of appearance per kilometer increase in altitude for butterfly communities overall, and an average 23-day shift for 26 selected species, alongside average summer temperature lapse rates of 3°C per km. At higher elevations, there was a short

SUBMITTER: Zografou K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6988524 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature