西班牙雷亚尔港加的斯大学Juan P. González-Varo团队发现鸟类迁徙将植物传播到较冷纬度的可能性有限。相关论文于2021年6月23日发表于国际顶尖学术期刊《自然》杂志上。
他们评估了植物群落通过候鸟长距离传播种子来跟上气候变化的潜力。为此，他们将来自欧洲 13 个林地群落的 46 种鸟类和 81 种植物之间的 949 种种子传播相互作用的数据与物候和迁徙信息相结合。这些群落中的大多数植物物种（86%）被南迁的鸟类散播，而只有35%的植物被北迁的鸟类散播；后一个亚群在系统发育上聚集在具有与春季迁徙重叠的结果期的谱系中。此外，大部分这种向北传播的关键服务仅由少数古北迁徙物种提供。候鸟协助少量非随机植物样本在纬度上跟踪气候变化的潜力预计将强烈影响新植物群落的形成，从而影响它们的生态系统功能和更高营养级别的群落组成。
据了解，气候变化正以前所未有的速度迫使地球上的生命重新分布。候鸟被认为可以帮助植物通过长距离传播种子来追踪气候变化。然而，根据植物物种的结果期是否与向北或向南迁移一致，种子可能会持续向较冷或较温暖的纬度散布。
附：英文原文
Title: Limited potential for bird migration to disperse plants to cooler latitudes
Author: Juan P. Gonzlez-Varo, Beatriz Rumeu, Jrg Albrecht, Juan M. Arroyo, Rafael S. Bueno, Tamara Burgos, Lus P. da Silva, Gema Escribano-vila, Nina Farwig, Daniel Garca, Ruben H. Heleno, Juan C. Illera, Pedro Jordano, Przemysaw Kurek, Benno I. Simmons, Emilio Virgs, William J. Sutherland, Anna Traveset
Issue&Volume: 2021-06-23
Abstract: Climate change is forcing the redistribution of life on Earth at an unprecedented velocity1,2. Migratory birds are thought to help plants to track climate change through long-distance seed dispersal3,4. However, seeds may be consistently dispersed towards cooler or warmer latitudes depending on whether the fruiting period of a plant species coincides with northward or southward migrations. Here we assess the potential of plant communities to keep pace with climate change through long-distance seed dispersal by migratory birds. To do so, we combine phenological and migration information with data on 949 seed-dispersal interactions between 46 bird and 81 plant species from 13 woodland communities across Europe. Most of the plant species (86%) in these communities are dispersed by birds migrating south, whereas only 35% are dispersed by birds migrating north; the latter subset is phylogenetically clustered in lineages that have fruiting periods that overlap with the spring migration. Moreover, the majority of this critical dispersal service northwards is provided by only a few Palaearctic migrant species. The potential of migratory birds to assist a small, non-random sample of plants to track climate change latitudinally is expected to strongly influence the formation of novel plant communities, and thus affect their ecosystem functions and community assembly at higher trophic levels.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03665-2
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03665-2
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
