Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics.
Arctic and subarctic (i.e., [sub]arctic) ecosystems are predicted to be particularly susceptible to climate change. The area of tundra is expected to decrease and temperate climates will extend further north, affecting species inhabiting northern environments. Consequently, species at high latitudes...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:3fca86d2ab5640f984bd57b40f2ee015 2023-05-15T14:41:58+02:00 Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. Anouschka R Hof Roland Jansson Christer Nilsson 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052574 https://doaj.org/article/3fca86d2ab5640f984bd57b40f2ee015 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3527567?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052574 https://doaj.org/article/3fca86d2ab5640f984bd57b40f2ee015 PLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 12, p e52574 (2012) Medicine R Science Q article 2012 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052574 2022-12-31T03:31:45Z Arctic and subarctic (i.e., [sub]arctic) ecosystems are predicted to be particularly susceptible to climate change. The area of tundra is expected to decrease and temperate climates will extend further north, affecting species inhabiting northern environments. Consequently, species at high latitudes should be especially susceptible to climate change, likely experiencing significant range contractions. Contrary to these expectations, our modelling of species distributions suggests that predicted climate change up to 2080 will favour most mammals presently inhabiting (sub)arctic Europe. Assuming full dispersal ability, most species will benefit from climate change, except for a few cold-climate specialists. However, most resident species will contract their ranges if they are not able to track their climatic niches, but no species is predicted to go extinct. If climate would change far beyond current predictions, however, species might disappear. The reason for the relative stability of mammalian presence might be that arctic regions have experienced large climatic shifts in the past, filtering out sensitive and range-restricted taxa. We also provide evidence that for most (sub)arctic mammals it is not climate change per se that will threaten them, but possible constraints on their dispersal ability and changes in community composition. Such impacts of future changes in species communities should receive more attention in literature. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Subarctic Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS ONE 7 12 e52574 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Anouschka R Hof Roland Jansson Christer Nilsson Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Arctic and subarctic (i.e., [sub]arctic) ecosystems are predicted to be particularly susceptible to climate change. The area of tundra is expected to decrease and temperate climates will extend further north, affecting species inhabiting northern environments. Consequently, species at high latitudes should be especially susceptible to climate change, likely experiencing significant range contractions. Contrary to these expectations, our modelling of species distributions suggests that predicted climate change up to 2080 will favour most mammals presently inhabiting (sub)arctic Europe. Assuming full dispersal ability, most species will benefit from climate change, except for a few cold-climate specialists. However, most resident species will contract their ranges if they are not able to track their climatic niches, but no species is predicted to go extinct. If climate would change far beyond current predictions, however, species might disappear. The reason for the relative stability of mammalian presence might be that arctic regions have experienced large climatic shifts in the past, filtering out sensitive and range-restricted taxa. We also provide evidence that for most (sub)arctic mammals it is not climate change per se that will threaten them, but possible constraints on their dispersal ability and changes in community composition. Such impacts of future changes in species communities should receive more attention in literature. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anouschka R Hof Roland Jansson Christer Nilsson |
author_facet |
Anouschka R Hof Roland Jansson Christer Nilsson |
author_sort |
Anouschka R Hof |
title |
Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. |
title_short |
Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. |
title_full |
Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. |
title_fullStr |
Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. |
title_sort |
future climate change will favour non-specialist mammals in the (sub)arctics. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052574 https://doaj.org/article/3fca86d2ab5640f984bd57b40f2ee015 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Subarctic Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Subarctic Tundra |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 12, p e52574 (2012) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3527567?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052574 https://doaj.org/article/3fca86d2ab5640f984bd57b40f2ee015 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052574 |
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PLoS ONE |
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7 |
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12 |
container_start_page |
e52574 |
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