Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The dark side of raptors’ distribution ranges under climate change

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Context

Artificial light at night (ALAN) represents a significant threat to biodiversity. Given that protected areas (PAs) are in relative darkness compared to the surrounding sites, they could be considered an effective tool towards eliminating the impacts of ALAN. However, the extent to which climate change-induced shifts would drive species out of PAs and thus, alter their exposure to ALAN remains an open question.

Objectives

We assessed the extent and protection coverage of dark areas across the current and future distributions of 39 raptor species of European conservation interest.

Methods

We initially developed a set of distribution models using current and projected climatic variables. Next, we used a satellite dataset of nighttime lights composite to determine the spread of ALAN within the raptors’ ranges. Finally, we applied three indices of proportional changes in the expansion of suitable habitats and dark areas to quantify patterns in ALAN within the current and future raptors’ ranges across Europe.

Results

Our analyses revealed that potential future distribution shifts of raptors will lead to changes in the exposure of species to ALAN, with these patterns being rather unfavourable for most of them. Still, PAs in Europe were found to offer a relative high proportion of dark areas which overlap with the current and future raptors range.

Conclusions

Our findings provided some first insights into the spatial conflict between species ranges and ALAN, considering potential distribution shifts driven by climate change. The proposed methodology offers the means to identify potential dark refugia towards prioritizing conservation actions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allouche O, Tsoar A, Kadmon R (2006) Assessing the accuracy of species distribution models: prevalence, kappa and the true skill statistic (TSS). J Appl Ecol 43:1223–1232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Araújo MB, Alagador D, Cabeza M, Nogués-Bravo D, Thuiller W (2011) Climate change threatens European conservation areas. Ecol Lett 14:484–492

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker B, Richardson J (2006) The effect of artificial light on male breeding-season behaviour in green frogs, Rana clamitans melanota. Can J Zool 84:1528–1532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beale CM, Lennon JJ (2012) Incorporating uncertainty in predictive species distribution modelling. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 367:247–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennie J, Davies TW, Duffy JP, Inger R, Gaston KJ (2014) Contrasting trends in light pollution across Europe based on satellite observed night time lights. Sci Rep 4:3789

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boulangeat I, Gravel D, Thuiller W (2012) Accounting for dispersal and biotic interactions to disentangle the drivers of species distributions and their abundances. Ecol Lett 15:584–593

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buij R, Gschweng M (2017) Nocturnal hunting by Eleonora's Falcons Falco eleonorae on their breeding and non-breeding grounds. Acta Ornithol 52:35–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burgas D, Byholm P, Parkkima T (2014) Raptors as surrogates of biodiversity along a landscape gradient. J Appl Ecol 51:786–794

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canário F, Leitão AH, Tomé R (2012) Predation attempts by short-eared and long-eared owls on migrating songbirds attracted to artificial lights. J Raptor Res 46:232–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies TW, Smyth T (2018) Why artificial light at night should be a focus for global change research in the 21st century. Glob Change Biol 24:872–882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeCandido R, Allen D (2006) Nocturnal hunting by peregrine falcons at the empire state building, New York City. Wilson J Ornithol 118:53–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dominoni DM (2015) The effects of light pollution on biological rhythms of birds: an integrated, mechanistic perspective. J Ornithol 156:409–418

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duffy JP, Bennie J, Durán AP, Gaston KJ (2015) Mammalian ranges are experiencing erosion of natural darkness. Sci Rep 5:12042

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elith J, Leathwick JR (2009) Species distribution models: ecological explanation and prediction across space and time. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 40:677–697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eriksen A, Wabakken P (2018) Activity patterns at the Arctic Circle: nocturnal eagle owls and interspecific interactions during continuous midsummer daylight. J Avian Biol 49:e01781

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • European Environment Agency (2018) European protected areas-Natura 2000 interactive map. Avalable: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/natura-9 Accessed at 9/2018.

  • Fick SE, Hijmans RJ (2017) WorldClim 2: new 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. Int J Climatol 37:4302–4315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fielding AH, Bell JF (1997) A review of methods for the assessment of prediction errors in conservation presence/absence models. Environ Conserv 24:38–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleming PA, Bateman PW (2018) Novel predation opportunities in anthropogenic landscapes. Anim Behav 138:145–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaston KJ, Davies TW, Bennie J, Hopkins J (2012) Reducing the ecological consequences of night-time light pollution: options and developments. J Appl Ecol 49:1256–1266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaston KJ, Duffy JP, Bennie J (2015) Quantifying the erosion of natural darkness in the global protected area system. Conserv Biol 29:1132–1141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guetté A, Godet L, Juigner M, Robin M (2018) Worldwide increase in Artificial Light At Night around protected areas and within biodiversity hotspots. Biol Conserv 223:97–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horváth M, Szitta T, Firmánszky G, Solti B, Kovács A, Moskát C (2010) Spatial variation in prey composition and its possible effect on reproductive success in an expanding eastern imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca) population. Acta Zool Acad Sci H 56:187–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Iknayan KJ, Beissinger SR (2018) Collapse of a desert bird community over the past century driven by climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115:8597–8602

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kempenaers B, Borgström P, Loës P, Schlicht E, Valcu M (2010) Artificial night lighting affects dawn song, extra-pair siring success, and lay date in songbirds. Curr Biol 20:1735–1739

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • La Sorte FA, Fink D, Buler JJ, Farnsworth A, Cabrera-Cruz SA (2017) Seasonal associations with urban light pollution for nocturnally migrating bird populations. Glob Change Biol 23:4609–4619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu C, White M, Newell G (2013) Selecting thresholds for the prediction of species occurrence with presence-only data. J Biogeogr 40:778–789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maiorano L, Amori G, Montemaggiori A, Rondinini C, Santini L, Saura S, Boitani L (2015) On how much biodiversity is covered in Europe by national protected areas and by the Natura 2000 network: insights from terrestrial vertebrates. Conserv Biol 29:986–995

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mazaris AD, Papanikolaou AD, Barbet-Massin M, Kallimanis AS, Jiguet F, Schmeller DS, Pantis JD (2013) Evaluating the connectivity of a protected areas' network under the prism of global change: the efficiency of the European Natura 2000 network for four birds of prey. PLoS ONE 8:e59640

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mougeot F, Garcia JT, Viñuela J (2011) Breeding biology, behaviour, diet and conservation of the red kite (Milvus milvus), with particular emphasis on Mediterranean populations. In: Zuberogitia I, Martínez JE (eds) Ecology and conservation of European dwelling forest raptors and owls. Editorial Diputación Foral de Vizcaya, Bilbao, pp 190–204

    Google Scholar 

  • Naimi B, Araújo MB (2016) sdm: a reproducible and extensible R platform for species distribution modelling. Ecography 39:368–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson AT (2011) Ecological niche conservatism: a time-structured review of evidence. J Biogeogr 38:817–827

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter RF (1981) Flight identification of European raptors. A&C Black, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Regos A, D'Amen M, Titeux N, Herrando S, Guisan A, Brotons L (2016) Predicting the future effectiveness of protected areas for bird conservation in Mediterranean ecosystems under climate change and novel fire regime scenarios. Divers Distrib 22:83–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rotics S, Dayan T, Kronfeld-Schor N (2011) Effect of artificial night lighting on temporally partitioned spiny mice. J Mammal 92:159–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russ A, Rüger A, Klenke R (2015) Seize the night: European Blackbirds (Turdus merula) extend their foraging activity under artificial illumination. J Ornithol 156:123–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scobie C, Bayne E, Wellicome T (2016) Influence of human footprint and sensory disturbances on night-time space use of an owl. Endanger Spec Res 31:75–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sirami C, Caplat P, Popy S, Clamens A, Arlettaz R, Jiguet F, Brotons L, Martin JL (2017) Impacts of global change on species distributions: obstacles and solutions to integrate climate and land use. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 26:385–394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Surov A, Banaszek A, Bogomolov P, Feoktistova N, Monecke S (2016) Dramatic global decrease in the range and reproduction rate of the European hamster Cricetus cricetus. Endanger Species Res 31:119–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wisz MS, Hijmans RJ, Li J, Peterson AT, Graham C, Guisan A, NCEAS Predicting Species Distributions Working Group (2008) Effects of sample size on the performance of species distribution models. Divers Distrib 14:763–773

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wisz MS, Pottier J, Kissling WD, Pellissier L, Lenoir J, Damgaard CF, Dormann CF, Forchhammer MC, Grytnes JA, Guisan A, Heikkinen RK, Høye TT, Kühn I, Luoto M, Maiorano L, Nilsson MC, Normand S, Öckinger E, Schmidt NM, Termansen M, Timmermann A, Wardle DA, Aastrup P, Svenning JC (2013) The role of biotic interactions in shaping distributions and realised assemblages of species: implications for species distribution modelling. Biol Rev 88:15–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Vasiliki Almpanidou, Vasiliki Tsapalou, Anastasia I. Tsavdaridou & Antonios D. Mazaris

  2. Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, 9712, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Vasiliki Tsapalou

Authors
  1. Vasiliki Almpanidou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Vasiliki Tsapalou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Anastasia I. Tsavdaridou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Antonios D. Mazaris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vasiliki Almpanidou.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Almpanidou, V., Tsapalou, V., Tsavdaridou, A.I. et al. The dark side of raptors’ distribution ranges under climate change. Landscape Ecol 35, 1435–1443 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01025-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01025-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation