Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89552, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Feb 2;107(5):2088-92. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0909686107. Epub 2010 Jan 19.
Climate change and habitat destruction have been linked to global declines in vertebrate biodiversity, including mammals, amphibians, birds, and fishes. However, invertebrates make up the vast majority of global species richness, and the combined effects of climate change and land use on invertebrates remain poorly understood. Here we present 35 years of data on 159 species of butterflies from 10 sites along an elevational gradient spanning 0-2,775 m in a biodiversity hotspot, the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California. Species richness has declined at half of the sites, with the most severe reductions at the lowest elevations, where habitat destruction is greatest. At higher elevations, we observed clear upward shifts in the elevational ranges of species, consistent with the influence of global warming. Taken together, these long-term data reveal the interacting negative effects of human-induced changes on both the climate and habitat available to butterfly species in California. Furthermore, the decline of ruderal, disturbance-associated species indicates that the traditional focus of conservation efforts on more specialized and less dispersive species should be broadened to include entire faunas when estimating and predicting the effects of pervasive stressors.
气候变化和栖息地破坏与脊椎动物生物多样性（包括哺乳动物、两栖动物、鸟类和鱼类）的全球减少有关。然而，无脊椎动物构成了全球物种丰富度的绝大多数，气候变化和土地利用对无脊椎动物的综合影响仍知之甚少。在这里，我们展示了 35 年来加利福尼亚内华达山脉生物多样性热点地区 10 个海拔梯度站点的 159 种蝴蝶的数据，海拔跨度从 0 到 2775 米。一半的地点的物种丰富度下降，在海拔最低的地方下降最为严重，那里的栖息地破坏最为严重。在较高的海拔地区，我们观察到物种的海拔范围明显向上移动，这与全球变暖的影响一致。总的来说，这些长期数据揭示了人类引起的气候变化和栖息地变化对加利福尼亚蝴蝶物种的相互负面影响。此外，贫瘠、与干扰相关的物种的减少表明，传统上保护工作的重点是更专门化和扩散性较差的物种，当估计和预测普遍压力源的影响时，应该扩大到包括整个动物群。
