Using diet to assess the sensitivity of northern and upland birds to climate change

Pearce‐Higgins, James W.

doi:10.3354/cr00920

Cited by 51 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 128 publications

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“…In contrast, fungi which play a dominant functional role in acidic, nutrient-poor systems (Thormann 2006), are more likely to mediate effects of vegetation change on decomposition in these systems. We also detected detrimental effects of warming on soil fauna, especially Diptera larvae, which other studies have also found to respond negatively to climate change (Briones et al 1997, Pearce-Higgins 2010. As such, their populations could be dramatically reduced at higher temperatures with cascading effects on the soil food chain (Buchanan et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Vegetation exerts a greater control on litter decomposition than climate warming in peatlands

Ward

Orwin

Ostle

et al. 2015

Ecology

111

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Abstract. Historically, slow decomposition rates have resulted in the accumulation of large amounts of carbon in northern peatlands. Both climate warming and vegetation change can alter rates of decomposition, and hence affect rates of atmospheric CO 2 exchange, with consequences for climate change feedbacks. Although warming and vegetation change are happening concurrently, little is known about their relative and interactive effects on decomposition processes. To test the effects of warming and vegetation change on decomposition rates, we placed litter of three dominant species (Calluna vulgaris, Eriophorum vaginatum, Hypnum jutlandicum) into a peatland field experiment that combined warming with plant functional group removals, and measured mass loss over two years. To identify potential mechanisms behind effects, we also measured nutrient cycling and soil biota. We found that plant functional group removals exerted a stronger control over short-term litter decomposition than did ;18C warming, and that the plant removal effect depended on litter species identity. Specifically, rates of litter decomposition were faster when shrubs were removed from the plant community, and these effects were strongest for graminoid and bryophyte litter. Plant functional group removals also had strong effects on soil biota and nutrient cycling associated with decomposition, whereby shrub removal had cascading effects on soil fungal community composition, increased enchytraeid abundance, and increased rates of N mineralization. Our findings demonstrate that, in addition to litter quality, changes in vegetation composition play a significant role in regulating short-term litter decomposition and belowground communities in peatland, and that these impacts can be greater than moderate warming effects. Our findings, albeit from a relatively short-term study, highlight the need to consider both vegetation change and its impacts below ground alongside climatic effects when predicting future decomposition rates and carbon storage in peatlands.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Vegetation exerts a greater control on litter decomposition than climate warming in peatlands

Ward

Orwin

Ostle

et al. 2015

Ecology

111

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“…a), and cold‐adapted species (Fig. a), and may have been mediated through impacts on food resources reducing breeding success in year t , as has previously been observed in upland habitat specialists (Pearce‐Higgins ; Pearce‐Higgins et al . ; Fletcher et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…), no very rare species, and few upland species, are sufficiently well covered by these surveys to be included in our analysis. Thus, as these other species may be particularly sensitive to climate change (Pearce‐Higgins ), the results presented here may present a potentially more positive overall assessment of climate change than would be apparent were the entire avifauna assessed. In addition, we have also not considered other potentially confounding non‐climatic drivers of change that may also affect long‐term population trends.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

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Drivers of climate change impacts on bird communities

Pearce‐Higgins

Eglington

Martay

et al. 2015

Journal of Animal Ecology

147

144

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Summary1. Climate change is reported to have caused widespread changes to species' populations and ecological communities. Warming has been associated with population declines in longdistance migrants and habitat specialists, and increases in southerly distributed species. However, the specific climatic drivers behind these changes remain undescribed. 2. We analysed annual fluctuations in the abundance of 59 breeding bird species in England over 45 years to test the effect of monthly temperature and precipitation means upon population trends. 3. Strong positive correlations between population growth and both winter and breeding season temperature were identified for resident and short-distance migrants. Lagged correlations between population growth and summer temperature and precipitation identified for the first time a widespread negative impact of hot, dry summer weather. Resident populations appeared to increase following wet autumns. Populations of long-distance migrants were negatively affected by May temperature, consistent with a potential negative effect of phenological mismatch upon breeding success. There was evidence for some nonlinear relationships between monthly weather variables and population growth. 4. Habitat specialists and cold-associated species showed consistently more negative effects of higher temperatures than habitat generalists and southerly distributed species associated with warm temperatures. Results suggest that previously reported changes in community composition represent the accumulated effects of spring and summer warming. 5. Long-term population trends were more significantly correlated with species' sensitivity to temperature than precipitation, suggesting that warming has had a greater impact on population trends than changes in precipitation. Months where there had been the greatest warming were the most influential drivers of long-term change. There was also evidence that species with the greatest sensitivity to extremes of precipitation have tended to decline. 6. Our results provide novel insights about the impact of climate change on bird communities. Significant lagged effects highlight the potential for altered species' interactions to drive observed climate change impacts, although some community changes may have been driven by more immediate responses to warming. In England, resident and short-distance migrant populations have increased in response to climate change, but potentially at the expense of long-distance migrants, habitat specialists and cold-associated species.

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“…However, more general patterns of earthworm consumption may result from gradients in climatic humidity, as in the case of the eastern European population of the Badger Meles meles (Goszczyński et al . ), or altitude, as in populations of several species of invertebrate‐feeding birds breeding in Scotland (Pearce‐Higgins ). In turn, a classic case of a strong local relationship between earthworms and their predators is that of European Moles Talpa europaea , the abundance of which is higher at sites with a greater density of earthworms (Skoczeń , Funmilayo ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Using soil from pellets of White StorksCiconia ciconiato assess the number of earthworms (Lumbricidae) consumed as primary and secondary prey

Orłowski

Książkiewicz‐Parulska

Karg

et al. 2016

Ibis

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Earthworms (Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae) form a significant component of the food web and are the staple diet of many higher‐trophic‐level predators, such as invertebrate‐feeding birds and mammals. Their almost complete digestion in the predator's gut hampers their detection or quantification in faeces or pellets except through labour‐intensive microscopic examination. As a result, the evaluation of earthworms as a component of diet has been neglected in most studies based on pellet analysis. We assess whether the earthworm component of the diet of White Storks Ciconia ciconia can be estimated reliably by measuring soil mass in pellets, and whether the fact that White Storks also consume European Moles Talpa europaea (themselves consumers of earthworms) affects this relationship. We found a significantly higher density of earthworm chaetae, but less soil material, in pellets containing the remains of Moles. This may indicate the secondary origin of some chaetae from the intestines of the ingested Moles. There was a strong relationship and close fit between the number of earthworm chaetae and the mass of soil (material < 0.2 mm) retrieved from all the pellets analysed. Approximating the number of chaetae based on a soil mass of 192 mg per 1000 chaetae yielded results differing by only 4–5% from numbers of chaetae counted directly. This validates the proposed method of indirectly calculating the number of earthworms consumed from the ingested soil mass, which simplifies and shortens the time‐consuming direct counting of chaetae and could contribute to a more detailed description and analysis of diets in wild birds. Such assessments are important in order to improve the detection of changes induced by the progressive simplification and loss of primary food web resources (such as earthworms) within agro‐ecosystems as a consequence of both the rapid intensification of agricultural production and climate change.

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Using diet to assess the sensitivity of northern and upland birds to climate change

Cited by 51 publications

References 128 publications

Vegetation exerts a greater control on litter decomposition than climate warming in peatlands

Vegetation exerts a greater control on litter decomposition than climate warming in peatlands

Drivers of climate change impacts on bird communities

Using soil from pellets of White StorksCiconia ciconiato assess the number of earthworms (Lumbricidae) consumed as primary and secondary prey

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