Ecological barriers mediate spatiotemporal shifts of bird communities at a continental scale

Significance We used a unique long-term dataset on breeding bird counts covering an entire continent to quantify the influence of ecological barriers on climate change–driven bird community shifts. We show that ecological barriers exert a significant effect on the distance and direction of bird community composition shifts at the continental scale, with coastlines and elevation having the strongest influence. The results underscore the relevance of combining ecological barriers and community shift projections for identifying the forces hindering community adjustments under global change. The implications of this study are of direct relevance to scientists, decision-makers, and conservation practitioners.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

• Publication date

  2023-05-30

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1073/pnas.2213330120PMID 37252949PMCID 10266007
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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