Ecological Effects Of Climate Change Research Articles

Climatic effects on the synchrony and stability of temperate headwater invertebrates over four decades.

Important clues about the ecological effects of climate change can arise from understanding the influence of other Earth-system processes on ecosystem dynamics but few studies span the inter-decadal timescales required. We, therefore, examined how variation in annual weather patterns associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) over four decades was linked to synchrony and stability in a metacommunity of stream invertebrates across multiple, contrasting headwaters in central Wales (UK). Prolonged warmer and wetter conditions during positive NAO winters appeared to synchronize variations in population and community composition among and within streams thereby reducing stability across levels of ecological organization. This climatically mediated synchronization occurred in all streams irrespective of acid-base status and land use, but was weaker where invertebrate communities were more functionally diverse. Wavelet linear models indicated that variation in the NAO explained up to 50% of overall synchrony in species abundances at a timescale of 4-6 years. The NAO appeared to affect ecological dynamics through local variations in temperature, precipitation and discharge, but increasing hydrochemical variability within sites during wetter winters might have contributed. Our findings illustrate how large-scale climatic fluctuations generated over the North Atlantic can affect population persistence and dynamics in inland freshwater ecosystems in ways that transcend local catchment character. Protecting and restoring functional diversity in stream communities might increase their stability against warmer, wetter conditions that are analogues of ongoing climate change. Catchment management could also dampen impacts and provide options for climate change adaptation.

Empirical evidence of temperature variability as a concurrent limiting factor for abalone distribution

Understanding how the performance, fitness, and distribution of species are impacted by changes in temperature is crucial for forecasting the ecological effects of climate change. Increasing mean sea surface temperature may alter the distribution of abalone species in the northeastern Pacific, although no apparent pattern has yet emerged. Ecophysiological observations (energy budget and the temperature performance curve based on scope for growth), satellite-derived daily sea surface temperature data, and observations of the population density distribution of wild abalones were integrated. The highest temperature-dependent scope for growth (physiological optimum) was discovered between 20.5 and 28.5 °C, peaking at 24 °C, with the upper thermal limit about 30 °C. Off the west coast of Baja California, the distribution of abalone appears to be dictated by the tradeoff between a mean temperature close to the physiological optimum and exposure to a highly variable environment (i.e., more stress and the risk of reaching suboptimal and lethal warm temperatures at the daily scale). The findings suggest that future models of the distribution of marine species in relation to thermal habitat should contain time-domain variability in addition to spatial-domain variability.

MARGINALIZATION OF THE MEAL MAKERS: ETHNOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS OF SALT FARMERS AND WORKERS OFTHE LITTLE RANN OF KUTCHH IN INDIA

India has witnessed inequalities despite making sustained developmental progress. The economically, socially, and ecologically marginalized communities are the worst affected by this skewed development. The Salt workers living inside the protected area of Wild Ass Sanctuary in Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) in India (Agariyas) experience such multi-dimensional marginality. Despite being the user of the common pool resource for decades, this community remains deprived of basic facilities and a range of public services during their stay inside the Rann. While their livelihood issues are well-documented, this research explored the complexities of their social, spatial, ecological, and political marginalization. An ethnographic study involving non-participant observations, in-depth interviews, and informal discussions with a range of different stakeholders was carried out during several short visits and a long stay. Data was collected in the form of field diaries, photos and videos, and audio recordings. For analysis, field notes and interview transcripts were read several times with a reflective mind. Situational and social arena maps were used for understanding the complexities of the lives of these populations. Despite the age-old association with the Rann, Agariyas became illegal residents of the LRK since it became a Wild Ass Sanctuary. While the ecological effects of climate change have affected the salt production cycles, increasing input prices, stagnant and decreasing output prices, increased occupational risk, and limited entrepreneur ability have resulted in grim economic prospects in an oligopolistic market. Carrying a historical stigma of belonging to the De-notified tribes, most Agariyas have poor social networks and remain politically invisible. They continue to remain excluded from most welfare entitlements of the public system. Agariyas face multiple and intersecting vulnerabilities that need policy attention. Ecological conservation to include economic, sociological, and anthropological viewpoints to appreciate the LRK as commons for the Agariyas who face unique challenges of sustaining and surviving.

Was Henry David Thoreau a Good Naturalist? An Approach for Assessing Data from Historical Natural History Records

abstract Ecologists are increasingly combining historical observations made by naturalists with modern observations to detect the ecological effects of climate change. This use of historical observations raises the following question: How do we know that historical data are appropriate to use to answer current ecological questions? In the present article, we address this question for environmental philosopher Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden. Should we trust his observations? We qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate Thoreau's observations using a three-step framework: We assess the rigor, accuracy, and utility of his observations to investigate changes in plants and animals over time. We conclude that Thoreau was an accurate observer of nature and a reliable scientist. More importantly, we describe how this simple three-step approach could be used to assess the accuracy of other scientists and naturalists.

Shifting correlations among multiple aspects of weather complicate predicting future demography of a threatened species

AbstractMost studies of the ecological effects of climate change consider only a limited number of weather drivers that could affect populations, though we know that multiple weather drivers can simultaneously affect population growth rate. Multiple drivers could simultaneously increase/decrease one vital rate, or one may increase a vital rate while another decreases the same vital rate. Considering the impact of multiple weather drivers on vital rates is particularly important in a changing climate, in which correlations among drivers may not be preserved in the future. We used a long‐term dataset on the endangered red‐cockaded woodpecker (Dryobates borealis) to understand how multiple weather drivers jointly affect survival and reproductive vital rates and then assessed the contributions of individual weather drivers to historical trends in vital rates over time. We found that vital rates were often influenced by more than one weather driver and that weather drivers most commonly exerted opposing effects. For instance, some weather drivers increased vital rates over time, while others acted in the opposite direction, decreasing vital rates over time. Importantly, the historical correlations among weather drivers are almost always projected to change in the future climate, such that future trends in vital rates may not match historical trends. For example, we do not find historical trends in adult survival, but changing correlations among weather drivers could generate future trends in this vital rate. Our work provides an example of how multiple weather drivers can control a variety of vital rates and also illustrates how changes in the correlation structure of weather drivers through time might substantially affect future trends in individual and population performance.

Chromosome-Level Reference Genome Assembly for the American Pika (Ochotona princeps).

The American pika (Ochotona princeps) is an alpine lagomorph found throughout western North America. Primarily inhabiting talus slopes at higher elevations (>2000 m), American pikas are well adapted to cold, montane environments. Warming climates on both historical and contemporary scales have contributed to population declines in American pikas, positioning them as a focal mammalian species for investigating the ecological effects of climate change. To support and expand ongoing research efforts, here, we present a highly contiguous and annotated reference genome assembly for the American pika (OchPri4.0). This assembly was produced using Dovetail de novo proximity ligation methods and annotated through the NCBI Eukaryotic Genome Annotation pipeline. The resulting assembly was chromosome- scale, with a total length of 2.23 Gb across 9350 scaffolds and a scaffold N50 of 75.8 Mb. The vast majority (>97%) of the total assembly length was found within 36 large scaffolds; 33 of these scaffolds correlated to whole autosomes, while the X chromosome was covered by 3 large scaffolds. Additionally, we identified 17 enriched gene ontology terms among American pika-specific genes putatively related to adaptation to high-elevation environments. This high-quality genome assembly will serve as a springboard for exploring the evolutionary underpinnings of behavioral, ecological, and taxonomic diversification in pikas as well as broader-scale eco-evolutionary questions pertaining to cold-adapted species in general.

Establishment and Survival of Subalpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa) in Meadows of Olympic National Park, Washington

Establishment of trees in subalpine meadows is a potential indicator of ecological effects of climate change. Tree establishment is a multi-year process including cone and seed production, germination, establishment, and growth, with each demographic step possibly sensitive to different climate limitations. While most studies have focused on one or a few steps, this study follows a cohort of individually marked saplings for 27 years beginning as seeds in two meadows on Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park. These meadows are examples of a south-facing tall sedge community type rather than the north-facing heath-shrub type where establishment has usually been observed. Results showed that mortality was high for the first few years, but number of saplings stabilized after the first decade. Seedling mortality during germination and establishment was directly related to weather that resulted in high air and soil temperatures and drought, while mortality of established saplings was indirectly related to weather through effects on growth. Growth was enhanced by longer growing season and warmer minimum temperatures; growth over three years and sapling height were predictive of mortality. Most sapling survival occurred in lichen (primarily Trapeliopsis granulosa) and Vaccinium deliciosum plant communities. Many saplings are growing at very low rates compared with the rate predicted from adult trees. It is also apparent that while microsite within meadow (e.g., relative snow depth) is important in determining sapling success, the landscape position of meadows (e.g., north versus south aspect) exerts a higher-level control over whether a subalpine meadow is likely to disappear with warming climate.

Shifted dynamics of plankton communities in a restored lake: exploring the effects of climate change on phenology through four decades

Lake surface temperatures have increased globally in recent decades. Climate change can affect lake biota directly via enhanced water temperatures, shorter ice cover duration and prolonged stratification, and indirectly via changes in species interactions. Changes in the seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton and zooplankton can further affect whole lake ecosystems. However, separating the effects of climate change from the more direct and dominating effects of nutrients is a challenge. Our aim was to explore the ecological effects of climate change while accounting for the effects of re-oligotrophication in Lake Mjøsa, the largest lake in Norway. While restoration measures since the 1970s have resulted in strongly reduced nutrient levels, the surface water temperature has increased by almost 0.4°C decade-1 during the same period. We analysed long-term trends and abrupt changes in environmental and biological time series as well as changes in the seasonal dynamics of individual plankton taxa. The general long-term trends in phenology were diverging for phytoplankton (later peaks) vs. zooplankton (earlier peaks). However, individual taxa of both phytoplankton and zooplankton displayed earlier peaks. Earlier peaks of the phytoplankton group Cryptophyceae can be explained by increased spring temperature or other climate-related changes. Earlier onset of population growth of certain zooplankton species (Limnocalanus macrurus and Holopedium gibberum) can also be explained by climatic change, either directly (earlier temperature increase) or more indirectly (earlier availability of Cryptophyceae as a food source). In the long run, climate-related changes in both phytoplankton and zooplankton phenology may have implications for the fish communities of this lake.

Loss of predation risk from apex predators can exacerbate marine tropicalization caused by extreme climatic events

Extreme climatic events (ECEs) and predator removal represent some of the most widespread stressors to ecosystems. Though species interactions can alter ecological effects of climate change (and vice versa), it is less understood whether, when and how predator removal can interact with ECEs to exacerbate their effects. Understanding the circumstances under which such interactions might occur is critical because predator loss is widespread and ECEs can generate rapid phase shifts in ecosystems which can ultimately lead to tropicalization. Our goal was to determine whether loss of predation risk may be an important mechanism governing ecosystem responses to extreme events, and whether the effects of such events, such as tropicalization, can occur even when species range shifts do not. Specifically, our goal was to experimentally simulate the loss of an apex predator, the tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier effects on a recently damaged seagrass ecosystem of Shark Bay, Australia by applying documented changes to risk-sensitive grazing of dugong Dugong dugon herbivores. Using a 16-month-field experiment established in recently disturbed seagrass meadows, we used previous estimates of risk-sensitive dugong foraging behaviour to simulate altered risk-sensitive foraging densities and strategies of dugongs consistent with apex predator loss, and tracked seagrass responses to the simulated grazing. Grazing treatments targeted and removed tropical seagrasses, which declined. However, like in other mixed-bed habitats where dugongs forage, treatments also incidentally accelerated temperate seagrass losses, revealing that herbivore behavioural changes in response to predator loss can exacerbate ECE and promote tropicalization, even without range expansions or introductions of novel species. Our results suggest that changes to herbivore behaviours triggered by loss of predation risk can undermine ecological resilience to ECEs, particularly where long-lived herbivores are abundant. By implication, ongoing losses of apex predators may combine with increasingly frequent ECEs to amplify climate change impacts across diverse ecosystems and large spatial scales.

Nlstimedist: An r package for the biologically meaningful quantification of unimodal phenology distributions

Abstract Phenological investigation can provide valuable insights into the ecological effects of climate change. Appropriate modelling of the time distribution of phenological events is key to determining the nature of any changes, as well as the driving mechanisms behind those changes. Here, we present the nlstimedist r package, a distribution function and modelling framework that describes the temporal dynamics of unimodal phenological events. The distribution function is derived from first principles and generates three biologically interpretable parameters. Using seed germination at different temperatures as an example, we show how the influence of environmental factors on a phenological process can be determined from the quantitative model parameters. The value of this model is its ability to represent various unimodal temporal processes statistically. The three intuitively meaningful parameters of the model can make useful comparisons between different time periods, geographical locations or species' populations, in turn allowing exploration of possible causes.

Advancing Leaf-Out and Flowering Phenology is Not Matched by Migratory Bird Arrivals Recorded in Hunting Guide's Journal in Aroostook County, Maine

Historical records have the potential to temporally and spatially expand ecological studies to places and periods that garnered the attention of earlier naturalists. Few historical or contemporary scientific studies have examined the local-to-regional ecological effects of climate change in northern Maine. Recently uncovered journals of L.S. Quackenbush, a hunting guide in mid-20th century Aroostook County, ME, provide an opportunity to incorporate new historical ecological data into climate change research.The leaf-out and flowering phenology observations in the Quackenbush journals are closely tied to spring temperatures and match the direction, though not the magnitude, of changes found in southern New England. Comparisons of Quackenbush's bird records to contemporary observations are less straightforward, but help fill an important gap in regional migratory bird phenology studies. Quackenbush's routine observations, recorded daily in a rural outpost in northern Maine, provide an important contribution to climate change research in a data-poor region and highlight a type of record that may be available in other rural areas.

Population reconstructions for humans and megafauna suggest mixed causes for North American Pleistocene extinctions

Dozens of large mammals such as mammoth and mastodon disappeared in North America at the end of the Pleistocene with climate change and “overkill” by human hunters the most widely-argued causes. However, the population dynamics of humans and megafauna preceding extinctions have received little attention even though such information may be telling as we expect increasing human populations to be correlated with megafaunal declines if hunting caused extinctions. No such trends are expected if climate change was the primary cause. We present tests of these hypotheses here by using summed calibrated radiocarbon date distributions to reconstruct population levels of megafauna and humans. The results suggest that the causes for extinctions varied across taxa and by region. In three cases, extinctions appear linked to hunting, while in five others they are consistent with the ecological effects of climate change and in a final case, both hunting and climate change appear responsible.

Submerged aquatic vegetation mapping in coastal Louisiana through development of a spatial likelihood occurrence (SLOO) model

Determining the spatial distribution of coastal foundation species is essential to accurately determine restoration goals, predict the ecological effects of climate change, and develop habitat management strategies. Mapping the distribution of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) species assemblages, which provide important habitat resource and ecological services in Louisiana, has been difficult due to the dynamic nature of SAV occurrence and the limited water clarity across much of the coast. Species distribution models (SDMs) link ecological conditions species occurrence across landscapes, and can predict the distribution of species across un-sampled or hard to sample areas and support the development of habitat maps. To predict SAV distribution in coastal Louisiana, a SDM was developed and projected across the landscape to create a spatial likelihood of occurrence (SLOO) model describing the probability of SAV presence in aquatic habitats. SAV presence and absence data were examined from over 500 field observations in relation to physical and hydrologic variables, including exposure, turbidity, water level, and salinity. A binary logistic regression model (p < 0.0001) identified three significant predictors of SAV presence: mean winter salinity, exposure, and turbidity. As each of these variables increased, the probability of SAV presence in the summer growing season decreased. The spatial application of this SDM helps to predict the likelihood of occurrence across the coastal landscape, creating a valuable tool to describe un-sampled SAV habitat and estimate future changes in habitat availability.

Alpine limnology of the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the USA in the context of environmental change

The cumulative impacts of multiple environmental and anthropogenic stressors on freshwater biodiversity have been studied in systems across the globe. The magnitude of multiple interdependent stressors on alpine systems may lead to increased primary productivity and jeopardize these unique communities. In this review, the consequences of individual stressors on alpine lake and pond ecology are synthesized, as well as the cumulative and potentially synergistic or antagonistic effects of multiple stressors. Beside temperature variability, other stressors reviewed include ultra violet (UV) radiation, organic pollutants, nutrient deposition, and biological invasions. Each stressor was evaluated individually and in combination with increasing water temperatures. In alpine environments, climatic warming is anticipated to increase with elevation, therefore amplifying the effects of temperature-related responses. The purpose of this review is to highlight the ecological effects of climate change on alpine lakes and ponds in the Rocky Mountains of North America and fill knowledge gaps between disciplines of aquatic studies. This work underscores that to better understand and face the overall effects of climate change on alpine biota, investigations must continue to assess the compounded impacts of multiple stressors. Emphasis must be put on the standardization of monitoring methods across alpine regions to aid in consistent trend and prediction analysis within the context of both current and future climate change.

Shifts in plant nutrient content in combined warming and drought scenarios may alter reproductive fitness across trophic levels

Ecological effects of climate change are difficult to predict because climate change is a multi‐variable phenomenon that can impact ecosystems through diverse pathways. Despite this fact, climate change ecology research has been dominated by relatively simplistic experiments and models. To test the importance of assessing more realistic climate and ecological scenarios an experiment was conducted to assess the interactive effects of multiple climate change variables (warming, drought) on survival and reproductive fitness across three trophic levels within a well‐studied terrestrial food web. The effects of warming and drought on the nutrient content of plants and how such changes may affect consumers was also examined. Results showed that warming and drought in combination can significantly alter the nutrient profiles of plants relative to climate variables in isolation and that multi‐variable climate change can severely impact plant reproductive fitness. Also, consumer nutrient profiles did not shift in accordance with their resources, but reproductive fitness of grasshoppers was nonetheless severely affected by warming and drought in combination. Predator survival rates decreased by more than 45% under all climate change scenarios, highlighting the variable responses of different trophic levels. The impacts across the entire food web were likely caused by a combination of metabolic changes due to warming, dehydration, altered nutrient availability and resource quality, and behavioral shifts. The results suggest that realistic climate change scenarios could dramatically affect long‐term demographic patterns as well as food web dynamics, and that single variable studies may fail to reveal the true impacts of climate change.

Changing Thermal Landscapes: Merging Climate Science and Landscape Ecology through Thermal Biology

Climate change and habitat modification both alter thermal environments and species distributions. However, these drivers of global change are rarely studied together, even though many species are experiencing climate change and habitat modification simultaneously. Here we review existing literature and propose avenues for merging the largely disparate lines of climate and landscape ecological research using temperature exposure and species’ thermal sensitivity as a shared framework. The integration of research on climate and landscape change is in the early stages and lags behind research focused solely on the ecological effects of climate change. Recent studies highlight important mismatches between the resolution of widely used climate datasets and ecological processes, which can be addressed through detailed mapping of thermal landscapes and the microclimates within them. Furthermore, the thermal niches of species, evolved under past climates, can predict the responses of species to changing microclimates associated with habitat modification; this suggests that microclimates and thermal niches may together act as a common filter, reassembling communities in response to both climate and landscape change. There is a need to further integrate microclimate and thermal niche data into landscape ecological research to advance our basic understanding of the combined effects of landscape and climate change and to provide actionable data for climate adaptation strategies that largely focus on activities at landscape scales.

Environmental and Ecological Effects of Climate Change on Venomous Marine and Amphibious Species in the Wilderness

Recent analyses of data show a warming trend in global average air and sea surface ocean temperatures. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, the sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased. This article will focus on climate change and projected effects on venomous marine and amphibious creatures with the potential impact on human health. Retrospective analysis of environmental, ecological, and medical literature with a focus on climate change, toxinology, and future modeling specific to venomous aquatic and amphibious creatures. Species included venomous jellyfish, poisonous fish, crown-of-thorns starfish, sea snakes, and toxic frogs. In several projected scenarios, rising temperatures, weather extremes, and shifts in seasons will increase poisonous population numbers, particularly with certain marine creatures like jellyfish and crown-of-thorns starfish. Habitat expansions by lionfish and sea snakes are projected to occur. These phenomena, along with increases in human populations and coastal development will likely increase human-animal encounters. Other species, particularly amphibious toxic frogs, are declining rapidly due to their sensitivity to any temperature change or subtle alterations in the stability of their environment. If temperatures continue to rise to record levels over the next decades, it is predicted that the populations of these once plentiful and critically important animals to the aquatic ecosystem will decline and their geographic distributions will shrink. Review of the literature investigating the effect and forecasts of climate change on venomous marine and amphibious creatures has demonstrated that temperature extremes and changes to climatic norms will likely have a dramatic effect on these toxicological organisms. The effects of climate change on these species through temperature alteration and rising coastal waters will influence each species differently and in turn potentially affect commercial industries, travel, tourism, and human health.

Adaptive population divergence and directional gene flow across steep elevational gradients in a climate-sensitive mammal.

The ecological effects of climate change have been shown in most major taxonomic groups; however, the evolutionary consequences are less well-documented. Adaptation to new climatic conditions offers a potential long-term mechanism for species to maintain viability in rapidly changing environments, but mammalian examples remain scarce. The American pika (Ochotona princeps) has been impacted by recent climate-associated extirpations and range-wide reductions in population sizes, establishing it as a sentinel mammalian species for climate change. To investigate evidence for local adaptation and reconstruct patterns of genomic diversity and gene flow across rapidly changing environments, we used a space-for-time design and restriction site-associated DNA sequencing to genotype American pikas along two steep elevational gradients at 30,966 SNPs and employed independent outlier detection methods that scanned for genotype-environment associations. We identified 338 outlier SNPs detected by two separate analyses and/or replicated in both transects, several of which were annotated to genes involved in metabolic function and oxygen transport. Additionally, we found evidence of directional gene flow primarily downslope from high-elevation populations, along with reduced gene flow at outlier loci. If this trend continues, elevational range contractions in American pikas will likely be from local extirpation rather than upward movement of low-elevation individuals; this, in turn, could limit the potential for adaptation within this landscape. These findings are of particular relevance for future conservation and management of American pikas and other elevationally restricted, thermally sensitive species.

Assessment of climate change effects on mountain ecosystems through a cross-site analysis in the Alps and Apennines

Mountain ecosystems are sensitive and reliable indicators of climate change. Long-term studies may be extremely useful in assessing the responses of high-elevation ecosystems to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers from a broad ecological perspective. Mountain research sites within the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) network are representative of various types of ecosystems and span a wide bioclimatic and elevational range.Here, we present a synthesis and a review of the main results from ecological studies in mountain ecosystems at 20 LTER sites in Italy, Switzerland and Austria covering in most cases more than two decades of observations. We analyzed a set of key climate parameters, such as temperature and snow cover duration, in relation to vascular plant species composition, plant traits, abundance patterns, pedoclimate, nutrient dynamics in soils and water, phenology and composition of freshwater biota.The overall results highlight the rapid response of mountain ecosystems to climate change, with site-specific characteristics and rates. As temperatures increased, vegetation cover in alpine and subalpine summits increased as well. Years with limited snow cover duration caused an increase in soil temperature and microbial biomass during the growing season. Effects on freshwater ecosystems were also observed, in terms of increases in solutes, decreases in nitrates and changes in plankton phenology and benthos communities. This work highlights the importance of comparing and integrating long-term ecological data collected in different ecosystems for a more comprehensive overview of the ecological effects of climate change. Nevertheless, there is a need for (i) adopting co-located monitoring site networks to improve our ability to obtain sound results from cross-site analysis, (ii) carrying out further studies, in particular short-term analyses with fine spatial and temporal resolutions to improve our understanding of responses to extreme events, and (iii) increasing comparability and standardizing protocols across networks to distinguish local patterns from global patterns.

Equipped to cope with climate change: traits associated with range filling across European taxa

In order to understand the ecological effects of climate change it is essential to forecast suitable areas for species in the future. However, species’ ability to reach potentially suitable areas is also critical for species survival. These ‘range‐shift’ abilities can be studied using life‐history traits related to four range‐shift stages: emigration, movement, establishment, and proliferation. Here, we use the extent to which species’ ranges fill the climatically suitable area available (‘range filling’) as a proxy for the ability of European mammals and birds to shift their ranges under climate change. We detect which traits associate most closely with range filling. Drawing comparisons with a recent analysis for plants, we ask whether the latitudinal position of species’ ranges supports the assertion that post‐glacial range‐shift limitations cause disequilibrium between ranges and climate. We also disentangle which of the three taxonomic groups has greatest range filling. For mammals, generalists and early‐reproducing species have the greatest range filling. For birds, generalist species with high annual fecundity, which live longer than expected based on body size, have the greatest range filling. Although we consider traits related to the four range‐shift stages, only traits related to establishment and proliferation ability significantly influence range filling of mammals and birds. Species with the greatest range filling are those whose range centroid falls in the latitudinal centre of Europe, suggesting that post‐glacial range expansion is a leading cause of disequilibrium with climate, although other explanations are also possible. Range filling of plants is lower than that of mammals or birds, suggesting that plants are more range‐limited by non‐climatic factors. Therefore, plants might be face greater non‐climatic restraints on range shifts than mammals or birds.