Geographical bias constrains global knowledge of phenological change

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
Nathalie Butt

Climate change is already driving shifts in phenology, the timing of life-history events such as flowering, fruiting, egg-laying, birth, and migration, and this is set to increase. Although climate change is happening, and will continue to happen, globally, most of our ecological knowledge around its potential impacts on phenology is derived from temperate areas and ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere, and information from the Southern Hemisphere is greatly lacking. This would not be a problem if biomes, ecosystems, species assemblages and species were the same in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but as they, in fact, differ across many factors and scales, understanding gained from one hemisphere is not necessarily applicable to the other.

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1807) ◽  
pp. 20150288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadiah Pardede Kristensen ◽  
Jacob Johansson ◽  
Jörgen Ripa ◽  
Niclas Jonzén

In migratory birds, arrival date and hatching date are two key phenological markers that have responded to global warming. A body of knowledge exists relating these traits to evolutionary pressures. In this study, we formalize this knowledge into general mathematical assumptions, and use them in an ecoevolutionary model. In contrast to previous models, this study novelty accounts for both traits—arrival date and hatching date—and the interdependence between them, revealing when one, the other or both will respond to climate. For all models sharing the assumptions, the following phenological responses will occur. First, if the nestling-prey peak is late enough, hatching is synchronous with, and arrival date evolves independently of, prey phenology. Second, when resource availability constrains the length of the pre-laying period, hatching is adaptively asynchronous with prey phenology. Predictions for both traits compare well with empirical observations. In response to advancing prey phenology, arrival date may advance, remain unchanged, or even become delayed; the latter occurring when egg-laying resources are only available relatively late in the season. The model shows that asynchronous hatching and unresponsive arrival date are not sufficient evidence that phenological adaptation is constrained. The work provides a framework for exploring microevolution of interdependent phenological traits.


2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1839) ◽  
pp. 20161366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara M. Tomotani ◽  
Phillip Gienapp ◽  
Domien G. M. Beersma ◽  
Marcel E. Visser

Animals in seasonal environments need to fit their annual-cycle stages, such as moult and migration, in a tight schedule. Climate change affects the phenology of organisms and causes advancements in timing of these annual-cycle stages but not necessarily at the same rates. For migratory birds, this can lead to more severe or more relaxed time constraints in the time from fledging to migration, depending on the relative shifts of the different stages. We tested how a shift in hatch date, which has advanced due to climate change, impacts the organization of the birds' whole annual cycle. We experimentally advanced and delayed the hatch date of pied flycatcher chicks in the field and then measured the timing of their annual-cycle stages in a controlled laboratory environment. Hatch date affected the timing of moult and pre-migratory fattening, but not migration. Early-born birds hence had a longer time to fatten up than late-born ones; the latter reduced their interval between onset of fattening and migration to be able to migrate at the same time as the early-born birds. This difference in time constraints for early- and late-born individuals may explain why early-born offspring have a higher probability to recruit as a breeding bird. Climate change-associated advancements of avian egg-lay dates, which in turn advances hatch dates, can thus reduce the negative fitness consequences of reproducing late, thereby reducing the selection for early egg-laying migratory birds.


Legalities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-115
Author(s):  
Matteo Nicolini

This article addresses how climate change triggers relevant transformations in the realm of the law and affects our politico-legal paradigms. To this end, it delivers cross-disciplinary research by focusing on a non-fictional literary genre, i.e. climate-change pop-science, which has arisen very recently. The article also explores the concept of ‘strategic formalism’, i.e. a strategic legal device unable to govern societal concerns. On the one hand, it shapes our approach to climate change and migration; on the other, it adapts ecological issues to the ‘traditional’ legal framework. Against this background, the article argues that non-fictional texts also reflect the ideas of the most active forces within society, and fuel dynamism when tackling the ecological crisis. In a time of climate change, these forces stir strategic formalism, and make the law act as a bridge linking our troubled reality to an inclusive future.


Author(s):  
Eric Post

This chapter looks at examples illustrating patterns in phenological responses to observed and experimental climate change. The most commonly observed phenological response to recent climate change is an advance in the timing of early life history events such as migration, plant emergence or flowering, amphibian breeding, or egg-laying dates in birds. Patterns in satellite-derived images of primary productivity suggest a lengthening of the plant-growing season in recent decades, whereas data on plant phenological dynamics from studies conducted at plot and sublandscape scales indicate shortened phenophases, or phenological events, in response to warming. This contrast may be resolved by recognizing the difference between phenology in the context of individual life history strategies of disparate species and landscape-scale patterns of phenology, and by recognizing the difference between local, species-specific phenological dynamics and those occurring at the landscape scale.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-82
Author(s):  
Roger L. H. Dennis ◽  
Peter B. Hardy

In the Greater Manchester area 2017 was an unusual year for nymphalid populations, the first in a thirty year period when the numbers of records of both Vanessa atalanta and Polygonia c-album (single egg-layers) exceeded those of Aglais urticae and A. io (large batch egg-layers). Annual abundances in Greater Manchester of these nettle-feeding nymphalids has revealed that the members of these two groups of species correlate with one another more closely than with either species of the other group. It is suggested that the mode of egg deposition (single egg-layers versus batch-layers) is involved in associations of changes in abundances of the nettle-feeding nymphalids. Other factors in life history may also be involved and are discussed (autumn adult food resources and larval host use). The same pattern is not found in pierids which differ in over-wintering mode and host plant condition. The costs and benefits of different egg-laying strategies are considered in relationship to changing abundances of species.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Tzu-Hui Chen

This narrative aims to explore the meaning and lived experiences of marriage that a unique immigrant population—“foreign brides” in Taiwan—possesses. This convergence narrative illustrates the dynamics and complexity of mail-order marriage and women's perseverance in a cross-cultural context. The relationship between marriage, race, and migration is analyzed. This narrative is comprised of and intertwined by two story lines. One is the story of two “foreign brides” in Taiwan. The other is my story about my cross-cultural relationship. All the dialogues are generated by 25 interviews of “foreign brides” in Taiwan and my personal experience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E Winkler ◽  
Michelle Yu-Chan Lin ◽  
José Delgadillo ◽  
Kenneth J Chapin ◽  
Travis E Huxman

We studied how a rare, endemic alpine cushion plant responds to the interactive effects of warming and drought. Overall, we found that both drought and warming negatively influenced the species growth but that existing levels of phenotypic variation may be enough to at least temporarily buffer populations.


Author(s):  
M. John Plodinec

Abstract Over the last decade, communities have become increasingly aware of the risks they face. They are threatened by natural disasters, which may be exacerbated by climate change and the movement of land masses. Growing globalization has made a pandemic due to the rapid spread of highly infectious diseases ever more likely. Societal discord breeds its own threats, not the least of which is the spread of radical ideologies giving rise to terrorism. The accelerating rate of technological change has bred its own social and economic risks. This widening spectrum of risk poses a difficult question to every community – how resilient will the community be to the extreme events it faces. In this paper, we present a new approach to answering that question. It is based on the stress testing of financial institutions required by regulators in the United States and elsewhere. It generalizes stress testing by expanding the concept of “capital” beyond finance to include the other “capitals” (e.g., human, social) possessed by a community. Through use of this approach, communities can determine which investments of its capitals are most likely to improve its resilience. We provide an example of using the approach, and discuss its potential benefits.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Michel Beine ◽  
Lionel Jeusette

Abstract Recent surveys of the literature on climate change and migration emphasize the important diversity of outcomes and approaches of the empirical studies. In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis in order to investigate the role of the methodological choices of these empirical studies in finding some particular results concerning the role of climatic factors as drivers of human mobility. We code 51 papers representative of the literature in terms of methodological approaches. This results in the coding of more than 85 variables capturing the methodology of the main dimensions of the analysis at the regression level. These dimensions include authors' reputation, type of mobility, measures of mobility, type of data, context of the study, econometric methods, and last but not least measures of the climatic factors. We look at the influence of these characteristics on the probability of finding any effect of climate change, a displacement effect, an increase in immobility, and evidence in favor of a direct vs. an indirect effect. Our results highlight the role of some important methodological choices, such as the frequency of the data on mobility, the level of development, the measures of human mobility and of the climatic factors as well as the econometric methodology.


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