Abstract
AbstractTrends of environmental change are influencing the behavior of many species across the world, while highly mobile species are disproportionately impacted by climate change and human modification. Here, we investigate the mechanisms behind climate change effects on the reproductive traits of highly mobile, West Australian bird taxa, the forest red‐tailed black cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii naso (FRTBC). Using a dataset of annual breeding frequency spanning 19 yr, in combination with hydrological, climatological, and remotely sensed data, we modeled the effects of environmental variation on the annual breeding frequency of FRTBCs. We found several significant relationships between annual breeding frequency of FRTBCs and environmental variation. While the model, which included a proxy for the availability of the cockatoo's primary food source and the previous season's rain, explained 49% of annual breeding frequency, there were also direct and indirect effects of heatwaves and forest productivity. Forest red‐tailed black cockatoo breeding appears to be linked to the spatiotemporal availability of its primary food sources, the fruit from the tree species, marri Corymbia calophylla and jarrah Eucalyptus marginata. However, Western Australia is experiencing significant climate change, with increases in temperature and declines in rainfall altering the phenologies of these species, while declining rainfall is affecting the vegetation structure of the region. As drought events and temperatures are anticipated to increase over the region, it is expected that the food resources during the breeding season for cockatoos will become increasingly limited in time and space, thus threatening the persistence of this iconic species. This scenario is likely to be representative of many other situations where wide‐ranging species rely on patchy food resources in a changing environment. As global biodiversity is increasingly threatened, this study presents timely evidence illustrating how climate change is affecting the persistence of a threatened, mobile species, and what the implications are for mobile species around the world.
Highlights
Climate change leaves a clear fingerprint on ecosystems and influences the behavioral traits of species (Both et al 2006, Burrows et al 2014)
Our model results indicated that forest red-tailed black cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii naso (FRTBC) yearly breeding frequency was non-random and that yearly variation in breeding frequency was likely due to the availability or quality of food in any given year, which in turn appeared to be influenced by environmental factors, such as rainfall and forest productivity
This finding is in accord with previous research conducted on a wide range of bird species avifauna and their response to climate change
Summary
Climate change leaves a clear fingerprint on ecosystems and influences the behavioral traits of species (Both et al 2006, Burrows et al 2014). Species that are highly mobile are disproportionately threatened by biophysical changes that may result from climate change, or from human modification of the environment (Both et al 2006, Runge et al 2014) This is because many mobile species breed infrequently and their reproductive behavior is closely related to natural cycles and resource availability in a given space for a period of time (Wyndham 1982, Areta et al 2013), and these resources can be significantly altered by processes such as rising temperatures and declining rainfall (Both et al 2006, Cameron 2009). As plant phenology is altered due to climate change, a trophic mismatch has occurred during the caribou’s breeding period, resulting in increased offspring mortality and greatly reduced offspring production (Post and Forchhammer 2007)
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