Afrotropical montane birds experience upslope shifts and range contractions along a fragmented elevational gradient in response to global warming.

ABSTRACT: Global warming is predicted to result in upslope shifts in the elevational ranges of bird species in montane habitats. Yet few studies have examined changes over time in the elevational distribution of species along fragmented gradients in response to global warming. Here, we report on a resurvey of an understory bird community in the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania, along a forested elevational gradient that has been fragmented over the last 200 years. In 2019, we resurveyed seven sites, ranging in elevation from 360 m to 2110 m, that were originally surveyed between 1979 and 1981. We calculated differences in mean elevation and lower and upper range limits for 29 species between the two time periods and corrected for possible differences in elevation due to chance. Over four decades, we d

SUBMITTER: Neate-Clegg MHC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8009416 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature