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Abstract For many species, a well documented response to anthropogenic climate change is a shift in various aspects of its life history, including its timing or phenology. Often, these phenological shifts are associated with changes in abiotic factors used as proxies for resource availability or other suitable conditions. Resource availability, however, can also be impacted by competition, but the impact of competition on phenology is less studied than abiotic drivers. We fit generalized additive models (GAMs) to a long‐term experimental dataset on small mammals monitored in the southwestern United States and show that altered competitive landscapes can drive shifts in breeding timing and prevalence, and that, relative to a dominant competitor, other species exhibit less specific responses to environmental factors. These results suggest that plasticity of phenological responses, which is often described in the context of annual variation in abiotic factors, can occur in response to biotic context as well. Variation in phenological responses under different biotic conditions shown here further demonstrates that a more nuanced understanding of shifting biotic interactions is useful to better understand and predict biodiversity patterns in a changing world.
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This content will become publicly available on August 1, 2026
Linking individual animal behavior to species range shifts under climate change
Climate change has led animal species to shift their ranges to greater elevations, latitudes, and depths, tracking their preferred abiotic niche. However, there is extensive variation in these shifts, and some species have not shifted their ranges at all. Some of this variation arises because species’ distributions not only align with the abiotic environment but are also shaped by biotic factors and movement. Through facilitating rapid adaptive responses to climate-mediated changes to abiotic, biotic, and movement factors, behavioral plasticity allows populations to survive environmental change by persisting in place, while also enabling successful establishment in novel habitats when shifting in space.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2305665
- PAR ID:
- 10629472
- Publisher / Repository:
- CellPress
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Volume:
- 40
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 0169-5347
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 805 to 817
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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