Beyond a warming fingerprint: individualistic biogeographic responses to heterogeneous climate change in California

Rapacciuolo, Giovanni; Maher, Sean P.; Schneider, Adam C.; Hammond, Talisin T.; Jabis, Meredith D.; Walsh, Rachel E.; Iknayan, Kelly J.; Walden, Genevieve K.; Oldfather, Meagan F.; Ackerly, David D.; Beissinger, Steven R.

doi:10.1111/gcb.12638

Cited by 161 publications

(188 citation statements)

References 96 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

176

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our rigorous study of elevational range shifts of mammals across montane California revealed heterogeneous responses of species within and among regions that were consistent with studies of other taxa [25] but that were most influenced by temperature change consistent with twentieth century warming [2,5]. A suite of high-elevation mammals appears to be undergoing range contraction amid disappearing highelevation climates.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…R. Soc. B 282: 20141857 heterogeneity observed in resurveys of birds [14], butterflies [47] and plants [28] over similar spatial and temporal scales, they amplify the complex and variable ways that species have changed over the past century in California [25]. Moreover, intra-species heterogeneity in range shifts appears widespread from our data but is probably under-reported in the literature owing to the infrequency of studies replicating range shift studies across spatially and ecophysically distinct survey regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…Heterogeneous range shifts have been demonstrated in a range of taxa [5,25], suggesting that species' responses to twentieth century climate change were both influenced by local factors and were context dependent. Tingley et al [14] found even greater heterogeneity in Californian birds sampled over the past century in the same regions; only half the observed range limit shifts of birds were upslope.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Spatially heterogeneous impact of climate change on small mammals of montane California

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Resurveys of historical collecting localities have revealed range shifts, primarily leading edge expansions, which have been attributed to global warming. However, there have been few spatially replicated community-scale resurveys testing whether species' responses are spatially consistent. Here we repeated early twentieth century surveys of small mammals along elevational gradients in northern, central and southern regions of montane California. Of the 34 species we analysed, 25 shifted their ranges upslope or downslope in at least one region. However, two-thirds of ranges in the three regions remained stable at one or both elevational limits and none of the 22 species found in all three regions shifted both their upper and lower limits in the same direction in all regions. When shifts occurred, high-elevation species typically contracted their lower limits upslope, whereas low-elevation species had heterogeneous responses. For high-elevation species, site-specific change in temperature better predicted the direction of shifts than change in precipitation, whereas the direction of shifts by low-elevation species was unpredictable by temperature or precipitation. While our results support previous findings of primarily upslope shifts in montane species, they also highlight the degree to which the responses of individual species vary across geographically replicated landscapes.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Spatially heterogeneous impact of climate change on small mammals of montane California

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…VTM: A CASE STUDY FROM CALIFORNIA California provides a unique case study for studying the interactions between climate, land use, and the distribution and abundance of populations and communities due to its diversity in climate, biota, topography and land use and its long tradition of natural history recording and collection (Rapacciuolo et al 2014b;Chornesky et al 2015). Moreover, the state is at the forefront in a range of climate adaptation measures (Chornesky et al 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rescuing and Sharing Historical Vegetation Data for Ecological Analysis: The California Vegetation Type Mapping Project

Kelly¹

2016

Biodiv. Inf.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.-Research efforts that synthesize historical and contemporary ecological data with modeling approaches improve our understanding of the complex response of species, communities, and landscapes to changing biophysical conditions through time and in space. Historical ecological data are particularly important in this respect. There are remaining barriers that limit such data synthesis, and technological improvements that make multiple diverse datasets more readily available for integration and synthesis are needed. This paper presents one case study of the Wieslander Vegetation Type Mapping project in California and highlights the importance of rescuing, digitizing and sharing historical datasets. We review the varied ecological uses of the historical collection: the vegetation maps have been used to understand legacies of land use change and plan for the future; the plot data have been used to examine changes to chaparral and forest communities around the state and to predict community structure and shifts under a changing climate; the photographs have been used to understand changing vegetation structure; and the voucher specimens in combination with other specimen collections have been used for large scale distribution modeling efforts. The digitization and sharing of the data via the web has broadened the scope and scale of the types of analysis performed. Yet, additional research avenues can be pursued using multiple types of VTM data, and by linking VTM data with contemporary data. The digital VTM collection is an example of a data infrastructure that expands the potential of large scale research through the integration and synthesis of data drawn from numerous data sources; its journey from analog to digital is a cautionary tale of the importance of finding historical data, digitizing it with best practices, linking it with other datasets, and sharing it with the research community.

show abstract

“…However, recent work suggests that trees in Sierra forests may be able to tap deeper reservoirs of water in some locations and that modeled increases in CWD in these areas may overestimate the impacts experienced by the larger trees (30). Modeled decreases in CWD in northern regions are associated with deeper soils in these regions that can store the additional precipitation and maintain lower deficit longer into the dry season (31). We specifically compare changes in tree density relative to changes in CWD for the tree size categories used in the historical data set, as evidence from drought induced mortality suggests that tree size influences vulnerability to water stress, with larger trees exhibiting greater mortality in response to drought (e.g., refs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

California's Historic Legacy For Landscape Change, the Wieslander Vegetation Type Maps

Thorne

2016

Madroño

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We document changes in forest structure between historical (1930s) and contemporary (2000s) surveys of California vegetation through comparisons of tree abundance and size across the state and within several ecoregions. Across California, tree density in forested regions increased by 30% between the two time periods, whereas forest biomass in the same regions declined, as indicated by a 19% reduction in basal area. These changes reflect a demographic shift in forest structure: larger trees (>61 cm diameter at breast height) have declined, whereas smaller trees (<30 cm) have increased. Large tree declines were found in all surveyed regions of California, whereas small tree increases were found in every region except the south and central coast. Large tree declines were more severe in areas experiencing greater increases in climatic water deficit since the 1930s, based on a hydrologic model of water balance for historical climates through the 20th century. Forest composition in California in the last century has also shifted toward increased dominance by oaks relative to pines, a pattern consistent with warming and increased water stress, and also with paleohistoric shifts in vegetation in California over the last 150,000 y.global change | forest | historical ecology | climatic water deficit U nderstanding the patterns and causes of recent changes in vegetation structure is essential to predicting ongoing and future vegetation responses to global climate change. Recent changes in forest structure and tree mortality attributed to increases in temperature and drought have been documented for large areas across the globe (1-5). Declines in the abundance of large trees have attracted particular attention, as large trees contribute disproportionately to forest structure and function, carbon stocks, and the cultural values of forests (6-10). Although land-use change and harvesting of large trees contribute to their decline, studies have found that large trees can suffer disproportionate mortality in response to drought in both temperate and tropical systems, and that declines have occurred in protected areas not subject to logging (5,8,11,12). The mechanisms responsible for large tree vulnerability to water deficit are poorly understood but rest largely on interacting effects of increased vulnerability to cavitation, carbon starvation during drought, and vulnerability to natural enemies (13,14). Here we present, to our knowledge, the first analysis of changes in large tree density across California during the 20th century in relation to changes in water deficit during the same period, and examine changes in species composition that can be linked to historical changes over longer time periods.In the forests of California, comparisons of historical and contemporary forests in selected areas of the Sierra Nevada and Transverse mountains suggest that forests have in-filled with small trees and exhibited declines in larger trees since the early 1900s, patterns attributed to fire suppression, forest exploitation, and changes ...

show abstract

Beyond a warming fingerprint: individualistic biogeographic responses to heterogeneous climate change in California

Cited by 161 publications

References 96 publications

Spatially heterogeneous impact of climate change on small mammals of montane California

Spatially heterogeneous impact of climate change on small mammals of montane California

Rescuing and Sharing Historical Vegetation Data for Ecological Analysis: The California Vegetation Type Mapping Project

California's Historic Legacy For Landscape Change, the Wieslander Vegetation Type Maps

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About