The Long Term Response of Birds to Climate Change: New Results from a Cold Stage Avifauna in Northern England

John R Stewart,Roger M Jacobi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0122617

Abstract

The early MIS 3 (55–40 Kyr BP associated with Middle Palaeolithic archaeology) bird remains from Pin Hole, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, England are analysed in the context of the new dating of the site’s stratigraphy. The analysis is restricted to the material from the early MIS 3 level of the cave because the upper fauna is now known to include Holocene material as well as that from the Late Glacial. The results of the analysis confirm the presence of the taxa, possibly unexpected for a Late Pleistocene glacial deposit including records such as Alpine swift, demoiselle crane and long-legged buzzard with southern and/or eastern distributions today. These taxa are accompanied by more expected ones such as willow ptarmigan /red grouse and rock ptarmigan living today in northern and montane areas. Finally, there are temperate taxa normally requiring trees for nesting such as wood pigeon and grey heron. Therefore, the result of the analysis is that the avifauna of early MIS 3 in England included taxa whose ranges today do not overlap making it a non-analogue community similar to the many steppe-tundra mammalian faunas of the time. The inclusion of more temperate and woodland taxa is discussed in the light that parts of northern Europe may have acted as cryptic northern refugia for some such taxa during the last glacial. These records showing former ranges of taxa are considered in the light of modern phylogeographic studies as these often assume former ranges without considering the fossil record of those taxa. In addition to the anomalous combination of taxa during MIS 3 living in Derbyshire, the individuals of a number of the taxa are different in size and shape to members of the species today probably due to the high carrying capacity of the steppe-tundra.

Highlights

The response of organisms to climate change is a subject that has seen an increase in attention over recent years [1,2,3,4]
The following is a description of the bird remains from the Middle Palaeolithic (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3) deposits of Pin Hole, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire in England
Follows a systematic description of the bird taxa found in the Middle Palaeolithic (Early MIS 3) levels at Pin Hole

Summary

Introduction

The response of organisms to climate change is a subject that has seen an increase in attention over recent years [1,2,3,4]. The Long Term Response of Birds to Climate Change projects, in addition to professional scientists (see [5]). They have correspondingly received a great deal of attention in relation to the impact of future climate change [6,7,8,9,10]. The longer term response of birds to climate change, at the multi-millennial scale, has received less attention. Modern birds have been observed responding quickly to humanly induced climate change [7] and it has been suggested that species associations of birds will undergo re-shuffling due to climate change over the 50 or more years, producing non-analogue communities [12]. It is important to establish baselines of past responses to natural change

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion