Climate warming, dispersal inhibition and extinction risk

Manuel Massot, Jean Clobert, Régis Ferrière

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

109 Scopus citations

Abstract

Global warming impels species to track their shifting habitats or adapt to new conditions. Both processes are critically influenced by individual dispersal. In many animals, dispersal behaviour is plastic, but how organisms with plastic dispersal respond to climate change is basically unknown. Here, we report the analysis of interannual dispersal change from 16 years of monitoring a wild population of the common lizard, and a 12-year manipulation of lizards' diet intended to disentangle the direct effect of temperature rise on dispersal from its effects on resource availability. We show that juvenile dispersal has declined dramatically over the last 16 years, paralleling the rise of spring temperatures during embryogenesis. A mesoscale model of metapopulation dynamics predicts that in general dispersal inhibition will elevate the extinction risk of metapopulations exposed to contrasting effects of climate warming.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)461-469
Number of pages9
JournalGlobal change biology
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2008

Keywords

  • Climate warming
  • Dispersal
  • Food availability
  • Long-term experiment
  • Long-term study
  • Mesoscale model
  • Reptile

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Global and Planetary Change
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Science(all)

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