Macroevolution of climatic niches in birds
Evolution, Anthropology
Final Report Abstract
The project aimed to investigate the interactions of species with their abiotic and biotic environment, and the temporal dynamics of these interactions. The ecological niches of species and the evolution of these niches was a main focus, to bridge the research fields of macroecology and macroevolution. Research focused on i) realized climatic niches, i.e. the set of abiotic climatic conditions where species are observed to occur; ii) ecomorphological traits of avian species, i.e. morphological dimensions of e.g. the beak or wing which are closely linked to species’ ecology such as diet and locomotion; and iii) the diversity of species assemblages and its relationships with climatic conditions and other environmental drivers, in particular spatial patterns of richness and species composition as well as their temporal dynamics over short (seasonal) and long (geological) timescales. Research was mostly performed with eight selected groups of birds comprising 515 species in total, but also spanned analyses across all birds and an extensive fossil dataset of large terrestrial mammals through the Neogene (ca. 23- 2 million years ago). For these different groups, comprehensive global datasets of extant and fossil species occurrences, climatic conditions, species’ ecomorphological traits, and molecular phylogenies were compiled and integrated, with primary data made publicly available. Although original plans were modified in the course of the project, the core research results have successfully addressed virtually all key questions. For example, climatic niches and ecomorphological traits of the 515 selected avian species differ among migratory vs. sedentary species. Evolutionary models support the existence of distinct selective optima in specific traits among migratory vs. sedentary lineages in the eight groups. Therefore, seasonal migration substantially impacts the ecology and evolution of niches in birds, which implies strong impacts on the structure of assemblages and their seasonal dynamics. Preliminary results from the renewal project confirm this, as diversity-climate relationships differ among seasons as well as among migratory vs. sedentary species. In contrast to these spatial relationships, the speed of evolutionary change in climatic niches in one bird group was independent from the speed of paleoclimatic change, indicating that niche evolution might not be directly driven by (paleo-) climatic conditions through time. Research in the project also addressed the links among climatic niches and ecomorphological traits, and provided a conceptual framework that combines climatic niche projections with ecological and morphological traits to predict the consequences of climate change on interacting species.
Publications
- (2016). Twenty-million-year relationship between mammalian diversity and primary productivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113: 10908-10913
Fritz, S. A., J. T. Eronen, J. Schnitzler, C. Hof, C. M. Janis, A. Mulch, K. Böhning-Gaese, C. H. Graham
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1602145113) - (2017). Quantification of climatic niches in birds: adding the temporal dimension. Journal of Avian Biology 48: 1517-1531
Eyres, A., K. Böhning-Gaese, S. A. Fritz
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.01308) - (2018) Evidence for distinct evolutionary optima in the morphology of migratory and resident birds. Journal of Avian Biology 49: e01807
Phillips, A. G., T. Töpfer, K. Böhning-Gaese, S. A. Fritz
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.01807) - (2018) Geological and climatic influences on mountain biodiversity. Nature Geoscience 11: 718-725
Antonelli, A., W. D. Kissling, S. G. A. Flantua, M. A. Bermúdez, A. Mulch, A. N. Muellner-Riehl, H. Kreft, H. P. Linder, C. Badgley, J. Fjeldså, S. A. Fritz, C. Rahbek, F. Herman, H. Hooghiemstra, C. Hoorn
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0236-z) - (2018). Effects of phylogeny and geography on ecomorphological traits in passerine bird clades. Journal of Biogeography 45: 2337-2347
Phillips, A. G., T. Töpfer, C. Rahbek, K. Böhning-Gaese, S. A. Fritz
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13383) - (2019) Unravelling the history of biodiversity in mountain ranges through integrating geology and biogeography. Journal of Biogeography 46: 1777-1791
Huang, S., M. J. M. Meijers, A. Eyres, A. Mulch, S. A. Fritz
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13622) - (2020) A tale of two seasons: the link between seasonal migration and climatic niches in passerine birds. Ecology and Evolution 10: 11983-11997
Eyres, A., K. Böhning-Gaese, C. D. L. Orme, C. Rahbek, S. A. Fritz
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6729) - (2020) Rates of ecomorphological trait evolution in passerine bird clades are independent of age. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 129: 543–557
Phillips, A. G., T. Töpfer, K. Böhning-Gaese, S. A. Fritz
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.029) - (2020) Trait-based assessments of climate-change impacts on interacting species. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 35: 319-328
Schleuning, M., E. L. Neuschulz, J. Albrecht, I. M.A. Bender, D. E. Bowler, D. M. Dehling, S. A. Fritz, C. Hof, T. Mueller, L. Nowak, M. C. Sorensen, K. Böhning-Gaese, W. D. Kissling
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2019.12.010) - (2021) Climatic effects on niche evolution in a passerine bird clade depend on paleoclimate reconstruction method. Evolution 75: 1046-1060
Eyres, A., J. T. Eronen, O. Hagen, K. Böhning-Gaese, S. A. Fritz
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14209)
