Working Group Goal

In this project, we sought to understand warming-induced changes in morphology in migratory species, and the potential interactions between changes in morphology and changes in migratory phenology that might impact responses to climate change.

Main Findings

Increasing temperatures on the breeding grounds of migratory species have driven size reductions across 52 species of North American migratory birds (Weeks et al, 2020). These changes occurred in parallel with changes in migratory phenology, but were not driven by selection for advancing phenology (Zimova et al. 2020). We also integrate data from North American migratory species, collected in Chicago, and species data from an intact Amazonian rainforest and find that smaller species have undergone more rapid morphological changes; we show that the effect of body size is independent of its relationship with generation length (Zimova et al. In review). 

Publications

Weeks et al., 2020. Shared morphological consequences of global warming in North American migratory birds. Ecology Letters

Zimova et al. 2020. Widespread shifts in bird migration phenology are decoupled from parallel shifts in morphology. Journal of Animal Ecology

Researchers Involved