Range expansion and the breakdown of Bergmann's Rule in Red-Bellied Woodpeckers (<i>Melanerpes carolinus</i>)

Kirchman, Jeremy J.; Schneider, Kathryn

doi:10.1676/13-087.1

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…Red‐bellied Woodpecker pre‐ and post‐expansion occurrences, models, and niche overlap values. Occurrence data (red dots) obtained from Audubon Christmas Bird Count and museum specimen locality information via Kirchman and Schneider (); CBC locations where Red‐bellied Woodpeckers were not reported are shown by gray dots. Warmer colors indicate a higher probability of species occurrence.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a generalist, the Red‐bellied Woodpecker has the potential to adapt to rapidly changing environments. Kirchman and Schneider () found that the northernmost individuals are larger post‐expansion, perhaps indicating that a shift in body size has enabled expansion into colder regions. This supports the idea that generalist species can expand their environmental breadth and range due to adaptation or plasticity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Georeferenced occurrence data were obtained from Kirchman and Schneider (). Briefly, in 2010, Kirchman and Schneider () aggregated Red‐bellied Woodpecker occurrences by requesting data from the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) annual survey, dating back to 1900, and by searching ORNIS (http://www.ornisnet.org) for museum specimens, dating to the 19th century. We trimmed the dataset to include only occurrences from December and January, and used winter bird occurrence records from 1910 to 1939 to model the pre‐expansion niche and from 1980 to 2009 to model the post‐expansion niche.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The northern boundaries of many North American bird species, including Red‐bellied Woodpeckers, seem to be limited by winter temperature (Root , b) such that warming winter temperatures may increase the area of suitable temperatures available for habitation. Indeed, the Red‐bellied Woodpecker range expansion seems to be led by winter birds (Kirchman and Schneider ), and Red‐bellied Woodpeckers and other woodpeckers ( Sphyrapicus species) are more likely to colonize areas with warming winter temperatures (Zuckerberg et al. , Billerman et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the predictive capabilities of ecological niche models: a case study examining Red‐bellied Woodpeckers

2018

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As humans continue to alter natural habitats indirectly and directly, species’ geographic ranges may change as they track shifting climate regimes or changing landscapes. Ecological niche models (ENMs) are frequently used to show modern ranges and forecast future range changes. These models, however, assume that a species will exhibit niche conservatism, though this is rarely tested. Here, we examine a woodpecker species with a well‐documented recent range expansion to assess the effectiveness of predictive models by comparing the pre‐ and post‐expansion climate/habitat niche using ENMs and multivariate principal components analysis. Occurrence data for the Red‐bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) were obtained from the pre‐expansion (1910–1939; n = 299) and post‐expansion (1980–2009; n = 868) time periods. Ecological niche models were constructed using GIS layers describing climate data and crop cover for the pre‐ and post‐expansion time periods. We then used the pre‐expansion ENM to forecast the distribution of Red‐bellied Woodpeckers into the post‐expansion time period, and vice versa, and calculated the niche overlap of the projected distributions and the actual distributions in those time periods to determine whether pre‐ and post‐expansion niches were similar. Predictive ENMs did not closely match the actual distributions in the pre‐ and post‐expansion time periods, respectively, and the pre‐expansion and post‐expansion niches were significantly different from each other (Schoener's D = 0.745, P < 0.001). Multivariate analyses revealed that the present‐day niche encompasses the past niche and that Red‐bellied Woodpeckers today have broader temperature and precipitation tolerances and are found in both more‐ and less‐forested areas than they were in the pre‐expansion era. Our analyses reveal that Red‐bellied Woodpeckers are not exhibiting climate or habitat niche conservatism, explaining why predictive ENMs for this species could not effectively track their range shift. This study emphasizes that predictive models may not be effective for species undergoing niche changes.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the predictive capabilities of ecological niche models: a case study examining Red‐bellied Woodpeckers

2018

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Bergmann's rule is followed at multiple stages of postembryonic development in a long‐distance migratory songbird

Youtz

Miller

Bowers

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Migratory behavior and winter geography drive differential range shifts of eastern birds in response to recent climate change

Rushing

Royle

Ziolkowski

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Over the past half century, migratory birds in North America have shown divergent population trends relative to resident species, with the former declining rapidly and the latter increasing. The role that climate change has played in these observed trends is not well understood, despite significant warming over this period. We used 43 y of monitoring data to fit dynamic species distribution models and quantify the rate of latitudinal range shifts in 32 species of birds native to eastern North America. Since the early 1970s, species that remain in North America throughout the year, including both resident and migratory species, appear to have responded to climate change through both colonization of suitable area at the northern leading edge of their breeding distributions and adaption in place at the southern trailing edges. Neotropical migrants, in contrast, have shown the opposite pattern: contraction at their southern trailing edges and no measurable shifts in their northern leading edges. As a result, the latitudinal distributions of temperate-wintering species have increased while the latitudinal distributions of neotropical migrants have decreased. These results raise important questions about the mechanisms that determine range boundaries of neotropical migrants and suggest that these species may be particularly vulnerable to future climate change. Our results highlight the potential importance of climate change during the nonbreeding season in constraining the response of migratory species to temperature changes at both the trailing and leading edges of their breeding distributions. Future research on the interactions between breeding and nonbreeding climate change is urgently needed.

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Range expansion and the breakdown of Bergmann's Rule in Red-Bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus)

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Testing the predictive capabilities of ecological niche models: a case study examining Red‐bellied Woodpeckers

Testing the predictive capabilities of ecological niche models: a case study examining Red‐bellied Woodpeckers

Bergmann's rule is followed at multiple stages of postembryonic development in a long‐distance migratory songbird

Migratory behavior and winter geography drive differential range shifts of eastern birds in response to recent climate change

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