Predicted alteration of vertebrate communities in response to climate-induced elevational shifts

Aim
Climate change is driving species to migrate to novel areas as current environments become unsuitable. As a result, species distributions have shifted uphill in montane ecosystems globally, leading to projections of severe impacts on upland specialist species. Heterogenous dispersal rate among shifting species could result in complex changes to community assemblages. For example, interspecific differences in dispersal ability could lead to the disruption, or creation, of species interactions and processes within communities, likely amplifying the impact of climate change on ecosystems. Here, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of climate change on communities and ecosystems by developing a novel spatially explicit approach focussing on changes in local populations.
Location
The Australian Wet Tropics.
Method
We used a spatially explicit approach to simulate the elevational shift of 7,613 community assemblages (defined at the patch level) along the elevational gradie...