美国加州大学S. R. Beissinger团队在研究中取得进展。他们研究揭示了气候变化会导致沙漠哺乳动物和鸟类群落的稳定或瓦解。相关论文于2021年2月5日发表于国际学术期刊《科学》杂志。
研究人员通过对一个世纪以来的研究调查,比较了莫哈韦沙漠保护区中小型哺乳动物和鸟类群落的物种占用率和站点级别丰富度的变化。小型哺乳动物群落保持非常稳定,而鸟类的数目由于气候变暖和干燥而明显下降。
热通量模拟确定了鸟类和哺乳动物在应对变暖方面的不同策略,研究人员将其归因于微栖息地的使用。如果不考虑微生境缓冲对热通量的影响,根据气候预测得出的估计值不太可能准确反映物种的遭受。
据悉,气候变化会很大程度上造成气候变暖,这将导致许多物种灭绝从而威胁生物多样性。 通常根据气候预测来评估气候变化对某个地区所有分类单元的影响,但是物种具有多种应对极端温度的策略。
附:英文原文
Title: Exposure to climate change drives stability or collapse of desert mammal and bird communities
Author: E. A. Riddell, K. J. Iknayan, L. Hargrove, S. Tremor, J. L. Patton, R. Ramirez, B. O. Wolf, S. R. Beissinger
Issue&Volume: 2021/02/05
Abstract: High exposure to warming from climate change is expected to threaten biodiversity by pushing many species toward extinction. Such exposure is often assessed for all taxa at a location from climate projections, yet species have diverse strategies for buffering against temperature extremes. We compared changes in species occupancy and site-level richness of small mammal and bird communities in protected areas of the Mojave Desert using surveys spanning a century. Small mammal communities remained remarkably stable, whereas birds declined markedly in response to warming and drying. Simulations of heat flux identified different exposure to warming for birds and mammals, which we attribute to microhabitat use. Estimates from climate projections are unlikely to accurately reflect species’ exposure without accounting for the effects of microhabitat buffering on heat flux.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abd4605
Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6529/633