Patterns in range shift: a global systematic map of terrestrial vegetation studies (Scopus).

Abstract

Abstract Comparatively fewer studies have been performed on vegetation range shift relative to those focused on animals. Moreover, there are few empirical studies documenting anthropogenically driven climate range shifts for long-lived terrestrial plants with long generation times, likely because their responses to environmental change are only observable on time scales spanning millennia. Consequently, evidence of vegetation range shifts often relies on modelling the responses of plant distributions to future climate (and land-use) scenarios. These factors have led to historically fewer systematic reviews, resulting in a lack of consolidation of progress in this area of range shift research. We conducted the first systematic map of studies that model and predict changes to future plant ranges. We investigated knowledge and geographical clusters and gaps that have formed over the last 30 years with a view to informing the direction and development of future research on vegetation range shift. We screened 7,336 papers for relevance, and included 294 articles in the final systematic map, produced with EviAtlas.