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Climate-driven variation in dispersal ability predicts responses to forest fragmentation in birds

Published Article

Global

Publication date: May 29, 2023

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This global study shows that climate-driven variation in bird dispersal ability is the strongest predictor of species responses to forest fragmentation. Using data from 1,034 species, the research highlights how temperature seasonality shapes dispersal traits and fragmentation sensitivity, informing more targeted conservation and land‑use planning worldwide.

Subject Tags

  • Conservation Planning
  • Biodiversity
  • Forest

Abstract

Species sensitivity to forest fragmentation varies latitudinally, peaking in the tropics. A prominent explanation for this pattern is that historical landscape disturbance at higher latitudes has removed fragmentation-sensitive species or promoted the evolution of more resilient survivors. However, it is unclear whether this so-called extinction filter is the dominant driver of geographic variation in fragmentation sensitivity, particularly because climatic factors may also cause latitudinal gradients in dispersal ability, a key trait mediating sensitivity to habitat fragmentation. Here we combine field survey data with a morphological proxy for avian dispersal ability (hand-wing index) to assess responses to forest fragmentation in 1,034 bird species worldwide. We find that fragmentation sensitivity is strongly predicted by dispersal limitation and that other factors—latitude, body mass and historical disturbance events—have relatively limited explanatory power after accounting for species differences in dispersal. We also show that variation in dispersal ability is only weakly predicted by historical disturbance and more strongly associated with intra-annual temperature fluctuations (seasonality). Our results suggest that climatic factors play a dominant role in driving global variation in the impacts of forest fragmentation, emphasizing the need for more nuanced environmental policies that take into account local context and associated species traits.

Citation

Weeks, T. L., Betts, M. G., Pfeifer, M., Wolf, C., Banks-Leite, C., Barbaro, L., ... & Tobias, J. A. (2023). Climate-driven variation in dispersal ability predicts responses to forest fragmentation in birds. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7(7), 1079-1091.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02077-x

TNC Authors