Projected trophic changes in species-carrying capacities under climate change scenarios ...

• Main Authors: Mendoza, Manuel, Araujo, Miguel B.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2024
• Subjects: trophic biogeography; Climate change; Global warming; Biodiversity; Species extinction; Invasive species; FOS Biological sciences; Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f83; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f83

Climate controls the amount of energy available for plants, which in turn determines the quantity of resources available for animals. It follows that when climate changes, so should trophic communities. Using a novel modeling approach, we investigate how bird and mammal trophic communities might disassemble and reassemble under 21st century climate changes. We show that trophic structures are expected to undergo profound changes globally, chiefly in the tropics and across high latitudes in the northern hemisphere. This trophic reorganization of communities is characterized by shifts in species richness within trophic guilds. While some guilds might face population collapses, others are projected to find new opportunities to maintain stable populations in previously inhospitable areas. The proposed models offer a tool for projecting and understanding the trophic ramifications of climate change, highlighting their potential in guiding future research and conservation efforts. ... : Data Geographical data were garnered from two primary sources and subsequently plotted on a global terrestrial grid, each cell measuring 1 × 1°: The global distribution ranges of terrestrial mammals and non-marine birds; Predictor bioclimatic variables potentially pertinent to these species. The distributions of species, specifically 9,993 non-marine birds and 5,272 terrestrial mammals, totalling 15,265 species, were informed by the IUCN Global Assessment's data on native ranges(38). To enable analysis, a presence/absence matrix was created. In this matrix, the species were aligned as columns, each named, against 18,418 terrestrial grid cells, each cell measuring 1 × 1°, as rows. These include all the non-coastal cells of the world, excluding Antarctica and some northern regions, such as most of Greenland, for which some data are lacking. This approach provided a clear, granular view of species distribution across the globe. The bioclimatic variables were divided into two datasets: historical (1961-2018) and ...