Species traits linked with range shifts of Chinese birds

Abstract

Range shifts are important species response to climate change and anthropogenic activities. While many studies have suggested that species traits are also important predictors of range shifts, they are mainly conducted in Europe and North America, and more importantly there are still many controversies about the roles of species traits. As far as we know, this is the first study in China linking bird species traits with range shifts. We aimed to answer two questions: 1) which order and family have most bird species with range shifts? 2) which traits are most associated with the bird species range shifts in China? A total of 204 species (14% of all bird species in China) had changed their ranges. Although passeriformes (126 species) and muscicapidae (23 species) had the most species with range shifts, the order and family with highest proportion of species with range shifts were cuculiformes (40%), rostratulidae (100%) and artamidae (100%). Our results also showed that range shifts of Chinese birds were positively correlated with geographical range size, habitat specificity, trophic level, and negatively correlated with body size. Notably, all the four traits were included in the combination of traits most associated with range shifts, suggesting that priority should be given to birds with large body size, low habitat specificity, low tropical level and small geographical size. Because these species could not adapt the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities in time, and would then face an increased risk of extinction. As China harbors high levels of overall bird species richness, threatened and endemic bird species richness, as well as large human population, this study is of great importance for the bird diversity conservation in China. Keywords: Biodiversity conservation, Body size, Chinese birds, Habitat specificity, Range shift, Trophic level