Rodrigues João Fabrício Mota, Botero Carlos A
Integrative Biology Department, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Nat Commun. 2025 Apr 17;16(1):3685. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-58815-1.
Understanding why certain species occupy wider climate niches than others is a fundamental pursuit in ecology with important implications for conservation and management. However, existing synthesis on this topic has focused on the consequences rather than the causes of climate niche expansion, leading to significant gaps in our understanding of the possible evolutionary drivers of this important ecological property. Here we leverage species distribution models powered by millions of citizen science sightings of birds to determine how a comprehensive suite of parameters influences the breadth of climate niches. Our analyses show that migration and more central locations in climate space are directly associated with wider climate niches. Additionally, they indicate that larger brains, smaller bodies, and broader dietary requirements are indirectly associated with narrower niches, presumably because they enable the occupancy of geographically widespread habitats that occupy narrow areas in climate niche space. Through follow-up analyses we further clarify how the different factors considered in this study help shape niche breadth by affecting the colonization of more versus less frequently used habitats. Overall, our findings shed light on critical, yet highly underappreciated properties of climate niches, underscoring the complexity and interconnectivity of the factors that shaped their evolution among birds.
理解为何某些物种占据比其他物种更广泛的气候生态位是生态学中的一项基本追求，对保护和管理具有重要意义。然而，关于这一主题的现有综述聚焦于气候生态位扩张的后果而非原因，导致我们对这一重要生态特性可能的进化驱动因素的理解存在重大差距。在此，我们利用由数百万公民科学鸟类观测数据驱动的物种分布模型，来确定一系列综合参数如何影响气候生态位的宽度。我们的分析表明，迁徙和在气候空间中更居中的位置与更广泛的气候生态位直接相关。此外，分析表明，较大的脑、较小的体型和更广泛的饮食需求与较窄的生态位间接相关，大概是因为它们能够占据在气候生态位空间中占据狭窄区域的地理上广泛分布的栖息地。通过后续分析，我们进一步阐明了本研究中考虑的不同因素如何通过影响对使用频率较高和较低的栖息地的定殖来塑造生态位宽度。总体而言，我们的研究结果揭示了气候生态位的关键但未得到充分重视的特性，突显了在鸟类中塑造其进化的因素的复杂性和相互关联性。
