Abstract
Inferring species' responses to climate change in the absence of long‐term time series data is a challenge, but can be achieved by substituting space for time. For example, thermal elevational gradients represent suitable proxies to study phenological responses to warming. We used butterfly data from two Mediterranean mountain areas to test whether mean dates of appearance of communities and individual species show a delay with increasing altitude, and an accompanying shortening in the duration of flight periods. We found a 14‐day delay in the mean date of appearance per kilometer increase in altitude for butterfly communities overall, and an average 23‐day shift for 26 selected species, alongside average summer temperature lapse rates of 3°C per km. At higher elevations, there was a shortening of the flight period for the community of 3 days/km, with an 8.8‐day average decline per km for individual species. Rates of phenological delay differed significantly between the two mountain ranges, although this did not seem to result from the respective temperature lapse rates. These results suggest that climate warming could lead to advanced and lengthened flight periods for Mediterranean mountain butterfly communities. However, although multivoltine species showed the expected response of delayed and shortened flight periods at higher elevations, univoltine species showed more pronounced delays in terms of species appearance. Hence, while projections of overall community responses to climate change may benefit from space‐for‐time substitutions, understanding species‐specific responses to local features of habitat and climate may be needed to accurately predict the effects of climate change on phenology.
Highlights
| INTRODUCTIONTesting local effects of elevation and habitat on phenology using space-for-time assumption could be a valid approach to understanding and predicting ecological responses to climate change (Banet & Trexler, 2013; Hodgson et al, 2011; Leingärtner et al, 2014)
Do the responses of individual species follow consistent patterns with elevation in terms of time of the appearance and duration of the flight period? We expect that univoltine species will show less pronounced altitudinal variation in phenology as a result of lesser adaptability compared with multivoltine species
On the basis of the different climatic scenarios proposed for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, the mean temperature rise will be about 1–3°C in the near future (2010–2039), 3–5°C by midcentury (2040–2069), and 3.5–7°C by the end of the century (2070– 2099) (Lelieveld et al, 2013)
Summary
Testing local effects of elevation and habitat on phenology using space-for-time assumption could be a valid approach to understanding and predicting ecological responses to climate change (Banet & Trexler, 2013; Hodgson et al, 2011; Leingärtner et al, 2014) This method has some caveats (e.g., it cannot track year-to-year changes in species phenology), it can, serve as a short-term “tracking device” that mimics the longer seasons and milder winters that are expected as the climate warms (EEA, 2017; van der Wiel, Kapnick, & Vecchi, 2017). Do the responses of individual species follow consistent patterns with elevation in terms of time of the appearance and duration of the flight period? We expect that univoltine species will show less pronounced altitudinal variation in phenology as a result of lesser adaptability compared with multivoltine species
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