Changes in Stonechat Saxicola torquata morphology: a response to climate change?

Abstract

Declining body size has been suggested to be a response of animals to global warming, but analyses of time series have led to contradictory results. One problem is that each trait related to body size may vary in response to factors other than temperature and independently of size. We analyse trends of three morphological traits of a passerine bird species: the Stonechat Saxicola torquata. Wing lengths were increasing and tail length mostly decreasing between 1989 and 2012. Variation in tarsus length showed no consistent trend. Wing length increased with increasing temperature. Concomitant decreasing tail length suggests, however, that increasing wing length cannot be explained by increasing temperatures during the study period. As tarsus length is a surrogate for overall size, we argue that there was no detectable trend in body size. Wing and tail length are related to flight performance, and increasing wing and decreasing tail length could be indicative of selection for more effective flight, related to either longer migration distances or increased predation pressure. The first scenario is unlikely given the strong suggestions of reduced migratory activity in birds as a response to climate change. The density of the Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus recently increased almost tenfold in the study area, but the hypothesis of changing morphology as a response to increasing predation pressure remains to be tested. Our study suggests, however, that linking fluctuating lengths in single morphological traits to body size change as a response to global warming may be premature when alternative hypotheses are not considered.