Climate change impact on ecosystem functions provided by birds in southeastern Amazonia

PLoS One. 2019 Apr 11;14(4):e0215229. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215229. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Although the impacts of climate change on biodiversity are increasing worldwide, few studies have attempted to forecast these impacts on Amazon Tropical Forest. In this study, we estimated the impact of climate change on Amazonian avian assemblages considering range shifts, species loss, vulnerability of ecosystem functioning, future effectiveness of current protected areas and potential climatically stable areas for conservation actions. Species distribution modelling based on two algorithms and three different scenarios of climate change was used to forecast 501 avian species, organized on main ecosystem functions (frugivores, insectivores and nectarivores) for years 2050 and 2070. Considering the entire study area, we estimated that between 4 and 19% of the species will find no suitable habitat. Inside the currently established protected areas, species loss could be over 70%. Our results suggest that frugivores are the most sensitive guild, which could bring consequences on seed dispersal functions and on natural regeneration. Moreover, we identified the western and northern parts of the study area as climatically stable. Climate change will potentially affect avian assemblages in southeastern Amazonia with detrimental consequences to their ecosystem functions. Information provided here is essential to conservation practitioners and decision makers to help on planning their actions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Animals
  • Biodiversity
  • Birds* / classification
  • Brazil
  • Climate Change*
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Ecosystem
  • Forests
  • Global Warming
  • Models, Biological
  • Rainforest*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico eTecnológico (CNPq) post-doctoral fellowship to LSM [301215/2016-2; 300712/2017-0]; and research grant to TCG [446167/2015-0]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. There was no additional external funding received for this study.