Dryad
Published May 17, 2021 | Version v1
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Limited potential for bird migration to disperse plants to cooler latitudes

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Departamento de Biología, IVAGRO, Universidad de Cádiz, Puerto Real, Spain**
  • 2. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, Germany**
  • 3. Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Sevilla, Spain*
  • 4. Dipartimenti SAAF e STEBICEF, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy*
  • 5. Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain*
  • 6. CIBIO-InBIO, Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, University of Porto, Vairão, Portugal**
  • 7. Global Change Research Group, Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain*
  • 8. Conservation Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany*
  • 9. Research Unit of Biodiversity (UO-CSIC-PA), Oviedo University, Mieres, Spain*
  • 10. CFE – Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal*
  • 11. Department of Plant Ecology and Environmental Protection, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland*
  • 12. Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK**
  • 13. Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK*

Description

Climate change is forcing the redistribution of life on Earth at an unprecedented velocity. Migratory birds are thought to help plants to track climate change via long-distance seed dispersal. However, seeds may be consistently dispersed towards cooler or warmer latitudes depending on whether a plant species fruiting period coincides with the northward or southward migrations. Here we assess the potential of plant communities to keep pace with climate change via long-distance seed dispersal by migratory birds. To do so, we combine phenological and migration information with data on 949 seed-dispersal interactions between 46 bird and 81 plant species from 13 woodland communities across Europe. While most plant species (86%) in these communities are dispersed by birds migrating south, only 35% are dispersed by birds migrating north, a subset phylogenetically clustered in lineages with fruiting periods that overlap with the spring migration. Moreover, only a few Palearctic migrant species provide most of this critical dispersal service northwards. The potential of migratory birds to assist a small non-random sample of plants to track climate change latitudinally is expected to strongly influence the formation of novel plant communities, thereby affecting their ecosystem functions and community assembly at higher trophic levels.

Files

Data_code_Gonzalez-Varo_et_al_bird_migration_plant_dispersal.zip

Files (4.3 MB)

Additional details

Related works

Is source of
10.5061/dryad.15dv41nx3 (DOI)