Regional changes in the elevational distribution of the Alpine Rock Ptarmigan <i>Lagopus muta helvetica</i> in Switzerland

Pernollet, Claire A.; Korner‐Nievergelt, Fränzi; Jenni, Lukas

doi:10.1111/ibi.12298

Cited by 32 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…It is possible that the difference between the altitudinal shift reported by Pernollet et al (2015) and the relative stability of the altitude of the breeding range found in our study and in that of Maggini et al (2011) could be a matter of timescale. Although the upward shift of the tree line is now a well-recognized fact (Harsch et al 2009), this phenomenon may be delayed by the combined effects of both harsh environmental conditions and high grazing pressure (Körner 2003;Gehrig-Fasel et al 2007;Boulangeat et al 2014;Lehikoinen et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

“…According to Revermann et al (2012), the predicted rise of July temperatures in the next decades will result in an upward shift in altitude of the species' range and a dramatic decrease of Rock Ptarmigan habitats by up to two-thirds by the year 2070. This pessimistic scenario has been recently reinforced by the findings of Pernollet et al (2015), who reported a significant shift in the elevational distribution of Rock Ptarmigan observed over the last three decades in most of the alpine regions of Switzerland. In another study, the elevational distribution of 95 bird species during the period of 1999-2007 was modelled from the data of the Swiss national breeding bird survey (Maggini et al 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Recent studies have addressed this issue in Switzerland (Revermann et al 2012;Pernollet et al 2015). According to Revermann et al (2012), the predicted rise of July temperatures in the next decades will result in an upward shift in altitude of the species' range and a dramatic decrease of Rock Ptarmigan habitats by up to two-thirds by the year 2070.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No short-term effects of climate change on the breeding of Rock Ptarmigan in the French Alps and Pyrenees

Novoa

Astruc

Desmet³

et al. 2016

J Ornithol

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In the last decades, the effects of climate warming have been particularly marked in high mountain areas. High-altitude species adapted to cold temperatures are consensually held to be particularly vulnerable to climate warming. Among these species at risk, alpine birds like the Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) are expected to exhibit a strong negative response, particularly at the southern margins of their ranges in the northern hemisphere. In this study, conducted from 1998 to 2011, we investigated whether variations in the local climate affected the breeding biology of Rock Ptarmigan in the French Alps and Pyrenees. The median hatching date did not significantly advance in either massif, suggesting that Rock Ptarmigan did not breed earlier during this period. The date of snowmelt and spring temperatures influenced the onset of breeding but not consistently in both sites. In the Alps, the median hatching date was significantly correlated with the date of snowmelt, but this correlation was less clear in the Pyrenees. Unlike woodland grouse which inhabit lower elevations, the onset of breeding in Rock Ptarmigan may be related to both date of snowmelt and spring temperatures. Reproductive success varied greatly over the years and among sites. On average, the number of young per adult in the Pyrenean population was greater than that recorded in the two populations in the Alps. A significant positive trend of reproductive success over the period of 2000-2009 was detected in the Pyrenees but not in the Alps. The model that best explained annual variation in reproductive success included the additive effects of site, date of total snowmelt and rainfall after hatching. The estimates from this model showed that for all sites, reproductive success was much lower when snowmelt was late, and rainfall after hatching was high. We did not detect any altitudinal changes in locations of either breeding females or nests, suggesting that the breeding habitat of the species has not shifted upward from 1998 to 2011. To conclude, although the Rock Ptarmigan is generally considered a potential sentinel species for indicating temperature-induced changes in alpine avifauna, our study did not show a short-term effect of climate change on the breeding biology of the southern populations of this species.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No short-term effects of climate change on the breeding of Rock Ptarmigan in the French Alps and Pyrenees

Novoa

Astruc

Desmet³

et al. 2016

J Ornithol

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“…Conversely, the species that showed an expansion or an upward shift gained on average about 300 m in the same period of time. A similar rate of displacement was found for the Alpine Rock Ptarmigan ( Lagopus muta helvetica ) in Swiss Alps over a 29‐year period (Pernollet et al, ). However, these patterns are not universal and are probably more difficult to observe in shorter time periods (e.g., Archaux, , Popy, Bordignon, & Prodon, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Winners and losers: How the elevational range of breeding birds on Alps has varied over the past four decades due to climate and habitat changes

Bani

Luppi

Rocchia

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Climate warming and habitat transformation are widely recognized as worrying threatening factors. Understanding the individual contribution of these two factors to the change of species distribution could be very important in order to effectively counteract the species range contraction, especially in mountains, where alpine species are strongly limited in finding new areas to be colonized at higher elevations. We proposed a method to disentangle the effects of the two drivers of range change for breeding birds in Italian Alps, in the case of co‐occurring climate warming and shrub and forest encroachment. For each species, from 1982 to 2017, we related the estimated yearly elevational distribution of birds to the correspondent overall average of the daily minimum temperatures during the breeding season and the estimated amount of shrubs and forest cover. Using a hierarchical partitioning approach, we assessed the net contribution (i.e., without the shared effect) of each driver. Both temperature and shrub and forest cover showed a positive trend along the time series and resulted the most likely causes of the significant elevational displacement for 21 of the 29 investigated birds. While shrub and forest cover was found to be an important driver of the expansion of forest bird range toward higher elevations, the effect of temperature on favouring the colonization of previously climatically unsuitable forests at higher elevations was not negligible. Shrub and forest expansion resulted the main driver of the range contraction for edge and open habitat species, which suffered a distribution shrinkage at their lower elevational boundary. In light of climate warming, these results highlighted how the net range loss for edge and open habitat species, caused by shrub and forest encroachment consequent to land abandonment, should be counteracted by implementing proper conservation management strategies and promoting sustainable economic activities in rangeland areas.

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“…According to predictive distribution models worldwide, increasing temperatures will force Alpine and Arctic species to seek cooler temperatures at higher elevations or at the poleward edges of continents (e.g. Beever et al., ; Büntgen et al., ; Moritz et al., ; Pedersen, Odden, & Pedersen, ; Pernollet et al., ). This is because Alpine and Arctic species living at the warmer margins of their bioclimatic niches are especially vulnerable to physiological stress, such as an inability to thermoregulate during especially warm periods (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alpine glacial relict species losing out to climate change: The case of the fragmented mountain hare population (Lepus timidus) in the Alps

Rehnus

Bollmann

Schmatz

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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Alpine and Arctic species are considered to be particularly vulnerable to climate change, which is expected to cause habitat loss, fragmentation and-ultimately-extinction of cold-adapted species. However, the impact of climate change on glacial relict populations is not well understood, and specific recommendations for adaptive conservation management are lacking. We focused on the mountain hare (Lepus timidus) as a model species and modelled species distribution in combination with patch and landscape-based connectivity metrics. They were derived from graph-theory models to quantify changes in species distribution and to estimate the current and future importance of habitat patches for overall population connectivity. Models were calibrated based on 1,046 locations of species presence distributed across three biogeographic regions in the Swiss Alps and extrapolated according to two IPCC scenarios of climate change (RCP 4.5 & 8.5), each represented by three downscaled global climate models. The models predicted an average habitat loss of 35% (22%-55%) by 2100, mainly due to an increase in temperature during the reproductive season. An increase in habitat fragmentation was reflected in a 43% decrease in patch size, a 17% increase in the number of habitat patches and a 34% increase in inter-patch distance. However, the predicted changes in habitat availability and connectivity varied considerably between biogeographic regions: Whereas the greatest habitat losses with an increase in inter-patch distance were predicted at the southern and northern edges of the species' Alpine distribution, the greatest increase in patch number and decrease in patch size is expected in the central Swiss Alps. Finally, both the number of isolated habitat patches and the number of patches crucial for maintaining the habitat network increased under the different variants of climate change. Focusing conservation action on the central Swiss Alps may help mitigate the predicted effects of climate change on population connectivity.

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Regional changes in the elevational distribution of the Alpine Rock Ptarmigan Lagopus muta helvetica in Switzerland

Cited by 32 publications

References 36 publications

No short-term effects of climate change on the breeding of Rock Ptarmigan in the French Alps and Pyrenees

No short-term effects of climate change on the breeding of Rock Ptarmigan in the French Alps and Pyrenees

Winners and losers: How the elevational range of breeding birds on Alps has varied over the past four decades due to climate and habitat changes

Alpine glacial relict species losing out to climate change: The case of the fragmented mountain hare population (Lepus timidus) in the Alps

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