Historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributions

Aim: Species distribution models are often used to project species distributions to different environmental conditions. However, most models do not consider whether the importance of abiotic factors may change over time. If they change, this has implications for the assessment of how abiotic changes...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J, Kissling, W, Biesmeijer, J, WallisDeVries, M, Reemer, M, Carvalheiro, L
Format: Journal article
Published: John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2016
_version_ 1797078574050574336
author Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J
Kissling, W
Biesmeijer, J
WallisDeVries, M
Reemer, M
Carvalheiro, L
author_facet Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J
Kissling, W
Biesmeijer, J
WallisDeVries, M
Reemer, M
Carvalheiro, L
author_sort Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J
collection OXFORD
description Aim: Species distribution models are often used to project species distributions to different environmental conditions. However, most models do not consider whether the importance of abiotic factors may change over time. If they change, this has implications for the assessment of how abiotic changes affect species distributions. Here, we use spatially explicit historical data on species occurrences, climate and land use to test whether the importance of different climatic and land-use drivers as determinants of species distributions has remained constant over a period of >  60 years (1951–2014). Location: The Netherlands. Methods: Using species distribution models and a comprehensive country-wide dataset at 5 × 5 km resolution, we modelled the distribution of a total of 398 pollinator species (bees, butterflies and hoverflies) for three periods (1951–1970, 1971–1990 and 1998–2014). We then evaluated whether the importance of variables related to climate (precipitation, temperature) and land use (landscape composition and habitat fragmentation) in determining pollinator distributions has changed over time. Results: Variables related to landscape composition were highly important in determining pollinator distributions in all periods. Precipitation was generally less important than temperature, and habitat fragmentation less than landscape composition. Land-use variables remained equally important across time for all pollinator groups, except for bees where the importance of habitat fragmentation decreased significantly over time. Among climate variables, the importance of precipitation did not change across time for any pollinator group. However, the importance of temperature increased significantly in recent times for bees and hoverflies. Main conclusions: Determinants of species distributions can change in their importance over time when changes in the magnitude and range of environmental conditions occur. Given future temperature rises, our results imply that species distribution models calibrated with current climatic conditions may not adequately predict the future importance of environmental factors in driving species distributions.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T00:33:51Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:80b7fb0a-5356-4036-9335-bf8df6969ff7
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-07T00:33:51Z
publishDate 2016
publisher John Wiley & Sons Ltd
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:80b7fb0a-5356-4036-9335-bf8df6969ff72022-03-26T21:25:20ZHistorical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributionsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:80b7fb0a-5356-4036-9335-bf8df6969ff7Symplectic Elements at OxfordJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd2016Aguirre-Gutiérrez, JKissling, WBiesmeijer, JWallisDeVries, MReemer, MCarvalheiro, LAim: Species distribution models are often used to project species distributions to different environmental conditions. However, most models do not consider whether the importance of abiotic factors may change over time. If they change, this has implications for the assessment of how abiotic changes affect species distributions. Here, we use spatially explicit historical data on species occurrences, climate and land use to test whether the importance of different climatic and land-use drivers as determinants of species distributions has remained constant over a period of >  60 years (1951–2014). Location: The Netherlands. Methods: Using species distribution models and a comprehensive country-wide dataset at 5 × 5 km resolution, we modelled the distribution of a total of 398 pollinator species (bees, butterflies and hoverflies) for three periods (1951–1970, 1971–1990 and 1998–2014). We then evaluated whether the importance of variables related to climate (precipitation, temperature) and land use (landscape composition and habitat fragmentation) in determining pollinator distributions has changed over time. Results: Variables related to landscape composition were highly important in determining pollinator distributions in all periods. Precipitation was generally less important than temperature, and habitat fragmentation less than landscape composition. Land-use variables remained equally important across time for all pollinator groups, except for bees where the importance of habitat fragmentation decreased significantly over time. Among climate variables, the importance of precipitation did not change across time for any pollinator group. However, the importance of temperature increased significantly in recent times for bees and hoverflies. Main conclusions: Determinants of species distributions can change in their importance over time when changes in the magnitude and range of environmental conditions occur. Given future temperature rises, our results imply that species distribution models calibrated with current climatic conditions may not adequately predict the future importance of environmental factors in driving species distributions.
spellingShingle Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J
Kissling, W
Biesmeijer, J
WallisDeVries, M
Reemer, M
Carvalheiro, L
Historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributions
title Historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributions
title_full Historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributions
title_fullStr Historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributions
title_full_unstemmed Historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributions
title_short Historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of Dutch pollinator distributions
title_sort historical changes in the importance of climate and land use as determinants of dutch pollinator distributions
work_keys_str_mv AT aguirregutierrezj historicalchangesintheimportanceofclimateandlanduseasdeterminantsofdutchpollinatordistributions
AT kisslingw historicalchangesintheimportanceofclimateandlanduseasdeterminantsofdutchpollinatordistributions
AT biesmeijerj historicalchangesintheimportanceofclimateandlanduseasdeterminantsofdutchpollinatordistributions
AT wallisdevriesm historicalchangesintheimportanceofclimateandlanduseasdeterminantsofdutchpollinatordistributions
AT reemerm historicalchangesintheimportanceofclimateandlanduseasdeterminantsofdutchpollinatordistributions
AT carvalheirol historicalchangesintheimportanceofclimateandlanduseasdeterminantsofdutchpollinatordistributions