Beehler, Pratt and Zimmerman note that "in the last century ice covered larger
areas on the Papuan high peaks; the icecap on Mount Trikora (Wilhelmina), New
Guinea’s second-higest peak has disappeared since World War II" (1986:16).
This information, of course predates Jared Diamond’s study. It may well be
that changes in the use of elevation of montane birds is even greater than
demonstrated in this study. Does anyone know if any ornithological studies
were carried out in these areas pre-war?
Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
PhD candidate
Vice-chair Wildlife Tourism Australia
On 22 Mar 2014, at 5:50 pm, colin trainor <> wrote:
> The Supplementary material with bird lists is available here:
>
> http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2014/02/13/1318190111.DCSupplemental/pnas.201318190SI.pdf
>
> Most of the species are resident/sedentary birds with small territories -
> some of the frugivores and nectarivores/raptors are capable of moving widely.
>
> Seasonality - the study area is very close to the Equator (4-6 degrees
> South), I suspect that there is zero seasonal climate diffs (ie no
> season/aseasonal) and very limited rainfall seasonality (ie everwet, or close
> to).
>
>
>
>
>> Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 18:55:03 +1100
>> From:
>> To:
>> CC:
>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Rapid upslope shifts in New Guinean birds
>> illustrate strong distributional responses of tropical montane species to
>> global warming
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> The study does not appear to consider seasonal changes that are more
>> likely than small distribution movements due to climate shifts.
>>
>>
>>
>> colin trainor wrote:
>>
>>> An interesting recent study that re-samples sites first surveyed by Jared
>>> Diamond 40+yrs ago.... to look at changes in elevation use by montane birds
>>> in New Guinea region..
>>>
>>> Colin
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/02/13/1318190111.abstract
>>>
>>> Abstract
>>> Temperate-zone species have responded to warming temperatures by
>>> shifting their distributions poleward and upslope. Thermal
>>> tolerance data suggests that tropical
>>> species may respond to warming temperatures even more strongly than
>>> temperate-zone species,
>>> but this prediction has yet to be tested.
>>> We addressed this data gap by conducting resurveys to measure
>>> distributional responses
>>> to temperature increases in the
>>> elevational limits of the avifaunas of two geographically and faunally
>>> independent New Guinean
>>> mountains, Mt. Karimui and Karkar Island,
>>> 47 and 44 y after they were originally surveyed. Although species
>>> richness is roughly
>>> five times greater on mainland Mt. Karimui
>>> than oceanic Karkar Island, distributional shifts at both sites were
>>> similar: upslope
>>> shifts averaged 113 m (Mt. Karimui) and
>>> 152 m (Karkar Island) for upper limits and 95 m (Mt. Karimui) and 123 m
>>> (Karkar Island)
>>> for lower limits. We incorporated these
>>> results into a metaanalysis to compare distributional responses of
>>> tropical species
>>> with those of temperate-zone species,
>>> finding that average upslope shifts in tropical montane species match
>>> local temperature
>>> increases significantly more closely than
>>> in temperate-zone montane species. That tropical species appear to be
>>> strong responders
>>> has global conservation implications and
>>> provides empirical support to hitherto untested models that predict
>>> widespread extinctions
>>> in upper-elevation tropical endemics with
>>> small ranges.
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>
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