North American Birds Not Fully Adjusting to Changing Climate
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In an emerging climate crisis, effective conservation requires both adaptation and mitigation to improve the resilience of species. Some North American bird species have not entirely changed their ranges in response to current climate change. The habitats of these birds have gotten increasingly disconnected from their ideal climatic conditions, while other aspects of the ecosystem have become more restrictive. This tendency of climate decoupling is especially evident for habitat specialists and decreasing species. Climate change poses a number of challenges to plants and animals. This can become even more severe as the climate is changing together with other human-caused changes, such as land use for agriculture or other uses. When there is increasing divergence between the climatic conditions suitable for a particular species and its abundance and distribution through time, this is known as climate decoupling.
