Effects of Dietary Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) Inclusion on Acute Temperature Stress Responses in Juvenile Olive Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus)

This study investigated the potential of dietary gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) inclusion to mitigate acute temperature stress impacting the physiological resilience of juvenile olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus). A total of 360 juvenile fish, with an average initial weight of 12.97 ± 0.1 g (mean ± SEM), were randomly assigned in triplicate to 18 tanks (20 fish per tank) and reared at 19.5 °C for 8 weeks, with bi-monthly collection of growth performance data. The fish were fed one of six experimental diets: control (GABA74), 174 ppm of GABA (GABA174), 275 ppm of GABA (GABA275), 396 ppm of GABA (GABA396), 476 ppm of GABA (GABA476), and 516 ppm of GABA (GABA516). At the end of the trial, one group of fish was subjected to lethal temperature stress (31 °C) for 48 h, while another was exposed to acute temperature stress (29 °C) for 6 h. Growth performance remained relatively stable across all inclusion levels (p > 0.05), with the final body weight (FBW) ranging from 48.2 ± 0.3 g (GABA174) to 50.3 ± 0.6 g (GABA516) and the feed conversion ratio (FCR) varying between 2.06 ± 0.07 (GABA396) and 2.35 ± 0.07 (control). There were no significant differences in average whole-body composition across all dietary treatments, with moisture content ranging from 74.8 to 75.0%, crude protein from 17.8 to 18.2%, crude lipid from 2.89 to 3.15%, and crude ash from 3.62 to 3.80%. Similarly, there were no significant differences in cumulative survival rates during lethal temperature exposure between the GABA-supplemented groups and the control group, with an average of 28.5 ± 4.6%. Additionally, GABA inclusion did not significantly alter plasma-free amino acid profiles, antioxidant enzyme activities, or immune functions (p > 0.05). However, temperature significantly reduced the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) from 3.34 ± 0.17 to 2.29 ± 0.36 µg/mL and increased the levels of glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) from 17.1 ± 0.8 to 46.3 ± 6.2 U/L, glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) from 14.4 ± 0.6 to 30.2 ± 2.1 U/L, glucose (GLU) from 13.3 ± 0.5 to 68.7 ± 7.7 mg/dL, total protein (TP) from 2.94 ± 0.00 to 3.21 ± 0.1 g/dL, and cortisol from 5001 ± 147 to 6395 ± 194 ng/mL. Furthermore, no significant changes were observed in the expression of key stress-related genes, including heat shock proteins (hsp60, hsp70, and hsp90) and the warm water acclimation-related gene wap65. This study establishes the safety of GABA as a dietary inclusion for olive flounder and highlights its potential to enhance stress resilience in aquaculture. However, the effectiveness of GABA-based interventions could depend on critical factors such as dosage, stress duration, and species-specific responses. Our findings highlight the need for further research to optimize GABA inclusion strategies, particularly with consideration for long-term physiological impacts.

Shifting Precipitation Regimes Influence Optimal Germination Strategies and Population Dynamics in Bet-Hedging Desert Annuals

AbstractClimate change will affect both the mean and the variability in environmental conditions and may have major negative impacts on population densities in the future. For annual plants that already live in an extreme environment like the Sonoran Desert, keeping a fraction of their seeds dormant underground (for possibly years at a time) is critical to survive. Here, we consider how this form of bet hedging (i.e., delayed germination) for 10 Sonoran Desert annuals mediates responses to precipitation shifts. We use a demographic model parameterized with long-term field and precipitation data to explore how forecasted changes in precipitation impact annual plant species' population densities. We then examine how instantaneous evolution of optimal germination fractions in the shifted precipitation regimes bolsters population densities. Our results indicate that overall less rainfall and, to a lesser extent, increased variance in rainfall drive population levels down. Instantaneous evolution of optimal germination fractions in new regimes benefited species' populations only marginally, and only for small to moderate shifts in precipitation. Thus, even rapid evolution is unlikely to save populations experiencing larger shifts in precipitation. Finally, we predict that specialists that can capitalize on wet-year bonanzas or are water use efficient will be the most resilient to precipitation shifts as long as their seed survivorships are sufficiently high.

Mercury in Fur of Bats in Middle Taiga of the European Part of Russia at Low Anthropogenic Exposure

Mercury is considered to be one of the chemical elements posing the greatest threats to the health of most animals and can be transferred from aquatic ecosystems to terrestrial food webs. Many bat species forage above water, and their food sources include aquatic and amphibious organisms. Bats are very sensitive to the slightest changes in the environment. The objective was to determine the accumulation of mercury in the fur of insectivorous bats in summer habitats in an area with limited anthropogenic activity in the conditions of the middle taiga in the northwest European part of the Russian Federation. In the studied species, the average values of the metal's content (μg/g) increased in the following order: Myotis daubentonii (3.294 ± 0.934), Myotis dasycneme (3.909 ± 0.543), Vespertilio murinus (8.011 ± 1.136), Pipistrellus nathusii (8.366 ± 0.546), and Nyctalus noctula (8.408 ± 1.386). The key factor regarding the mercury accumulation in each bat species is the foraging strategy. The mercury content in the fur of adult bats was higher than in subadults.

Winter-ground microhabitat use by differently coloured phenotypes affects return rate in a long-distance migratory bird

Migratory bird populations are declining globally at alarming rates. Non-breeding site conditions affect breeding populations, but generalising non-breeding habitat conditions over large spatial regions cannot address potential fine-scale differences across landscapes or local populations. Plumage characteristics can mediate the effects of environmental conditions on individual fitness. However, whether different phenotypes use distinctive non-breeding sites, and whether they respond to non-breeding site conditions differently remains largely unknown. Stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N, δ2H) of inert tissues are useful to infer habitat characteristics and geographic origins where those tissues were grown. We collected winter-grown feathers from pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) on their breeding grounds over several years from males whose dorsal plumage colouration ranged continuously from brown to black and assessed their stable isotope values as proxies of local habitat conditions. Based on feather δ2H profiles we found that browner males spent their non-breeding season in drier habitats than black males. Assignment to origin analysis shows potential regional non-breeding ground separation between differently coloured males. High within-individual repeatability of both δ13C and δ15N indicate the pied flycatcher males return yearly to similar areas. Blacker males were more likely to return to the breeding grounds after dry years compared with brown males. The opposite was found in wet years. Our study demonstrates that different phenotypes are exposed to different non-breeding site conditions which can differentially affect individual survivorship. This has important ramifications for population dynamics under predicted climate change scenarios where especially brown phenotype pied flycatcher males may be under a risk of decreasing.

Estimating survival in continuous space from mark-dead-recovery data - Towards a continuous version of the multinomial dead recovery model

Understanding spatially varying survival is crucial for understanding the ecology and evolution of migratory animals, which may ultimately help to conserve such species. We develop an approach to estimate an annual survival probability function varying continuously in geographic space, if the recovery probability is constant over space. This estimate is based on a density function over continuous geographic space and the discrete age at death obtained from dead recovery data. From the same density function, we obtain an estimate for animal distribution in space corrected for survival, i.e., migratory connectivity. This is possible, when migratory connectivity can be separated from recovery probability. In this article, we present the method how spatially and continuously varying survival and the migratory connectivity corrected for survival can be obtained, if a constant recovery probability can be assumed reasonably. The model is a stepping stone in developing a model allowing for disentangling spatially heterogeneous survival and migratory connectivity corrected for survival from a spatially heterogeneous recovery probability. We implement the method using kernel density estimates in the R-package CONSURE. Any other density estimation technique can be used as an alternative. In a simulation study, the estimators are unbiased but show edge effects in survival and migratory connectivity. Applying the method to a real-world data set of European robins Erithacus rubecula results in biologically reasonable continuous heat-maps for survival and migratory connectivity.

Carry-Over Effects of Climate Variability at Breeding and Non-Breeding Grounds on Spring Migration in the European Wren Troglodytes troglodytes at the Baltic Coast

Many studies have linked changes in avian phenology in Europe to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), which serves as a proxy for conditions in western Europe. However, the effects of climate variation in other regions of Europe on the phenology of short-distance migrants with large non-breeding grounds remain unclear. We determined the combined influence of large-scale climate indices, NAO, the Mediterranean Oscillation Index (MOI), and the Scandinavian Pattern (SCAND), during the preceding year on spring migration timing of European wren at the southern Baltic coast during 1982-2021. We modelled the effects of these climate variables on the entire passage and subsequent percentiles of the wren's passage at Bukowo-Kopań and Hel ringing stations. Over 1982-2021, the start and median of migration shifted earlier at Hel, but the end of passage shifted later at both stations. In effect, the duration of passage at Hel was extended by 7.6 days. Early passage at Hel was related with high MOI in spring and the preceding autumn. Spring passage at Bukowo-Kopań was delayed after high NAO in the previous breeding season, and high winter and spring NAO. Late spring passage occurred at both stations following a high SCAND in the previous summer. At both locations, an early start or median of passage followed high local temperatures. We conclude that phenology of the wren's spring migration at the Baltic coast was shaped by conditions encountered at wintering quarters in western Europe, where NAO operates, and in the south-eastern Europe, where the MOI operates, in conjunction with conditions in Scandinavia during the previous breeding season. We demonstrated that climate variability in various parts of the migrants' range has combined carry-over effects on in migrants' phenology in Europe.

A conceptual framework to integrate cold-survival strategies: torpor, resistance and seasonal migration

Freezing temperatures are inherently challenging for life, which is water based. How species cope with these conditions fundamentally shapes ecological and evolutionary processes. Despite this, there is no comprehensive conceptual framework for cold-survival strategies-seasonal migration, cold resistance and torpor. Here, I propose a framework with four components for conceptualizing and quantifying cold-survival strategies. Cold-survival strategies are (i) collectively encompassed by the proposed framework, and that this full breadth of strategies should be considered in focal species or systems (comprehensive consideration). These strategies also (ii) exist on a spectrum, such that species can exhibit partial use of strategies, (iii) are non-exclusive, such that some species use multiple strategies concurrently (combined use) and (iv) should collectively vary inversely and proportionally with one another when controlling for the external environment (e.g. when considering species that occur in sympatry in their summer range), such that use of one strategy reduces, collectively, the use of others (proportional use). This framework is relevant to understanding fundamental patterns and processes in evolution, ecology, physiology and conservation biology.

Do We Need to Use Bats as Bioindicators?

Simple Summary

Bioindicators are organisms that react to the quality or characteristics of the environment and their changes. They are vitally important to track environmental alterations and take action to mitigate them. As choosing the right bioindicators has important policy implications, it is crucial to select them to tackle clear goals rather than selling specific organisms as bioindicators for other reasons, such as for improving their public profile and encourage species conservation. Bats are a species-rich mammal group that provide key services such as pest suppression, pollination of plants of economic importance or seed dispersal. Bats show clear reactions to environmental alterations and as such have been proposed as potentially useful bioindicators. Based on the relatively limited number of studies available, bats are likely excellent indicators in habitats such as rivers, forests, and urban sites. However, more testing across broad geographic areas is needed, and establishing research networks is fundamental to reach this goal. Some limitations to using bats as bioindicators exist, such as difficulties in separating cryptic species and identifying bats in flight from their calls. It is often also problematic to establish the environmental factors that influence the distribution and behaviour of bats.

Abstract

Bats show responses to anthropogenic stressors linked to changes in other ecosystem components such as insects, and as K-selected mammals, exhibit fast population declines. This speciose, widespread mammal group shows an impressive trophic diversity and provides key ecosystem services. For these and other reasons, bats might act as suitable bioindicators in many environmental contexts. However, few studies have explicitly tested this potential, and in some cases, stating that bats are useful bioindicators more closely resembles a slogan to support conservation than a well-grounded piece of scientific evidence. Here, we review the available information and highlight the limitations that arise in using bats as bioindicators. Based on the limited number of studies available, the use of bats as bioindicators is highly promising and warrants further investigation in specific contexts such as river quality, urbanisation, farming practices, forestry, bioaccumulation, and climate change. Whether bats may also serve as surrogate taxa remains a controversial yet highly interesting matter. Some limitations to using bats as bioindicators include taxonomical issues, sampling problems, difficulties in associating responses with specific stressors, and geographically biased or delayed responses. Overall, we urge the scientific community to test bat responses to specific stressors in selected ecosystem types and develop research networks to explore the geographic consistency of such responses. The high cost of sampling equipment (ultrasound detectors) is being greatly reduced by technological advances, and the legal obligation to monitor bat populations already existing in many countries such as those in the EU offers an important opportunity to accomplish two objectives (conservation and bioindication) with one action.

Climate change and marine turtles: recent advances and future directions

Climate change is a threat to marine turtles that is expected to affect all of their life stages. To guide future research, we conducted a review of the most recent literature on this topic, highlighting knowledge gains and research gaps since a similar previous review in 2009. Most research has been focussed on the terrestrial life history phase, where expected impacts will range from habitat loss and decreased reproductive success to feminization of populations, but changes in reproductive periodicity, shifts in latitudinal ranges, and changes in foraging success are all expected in the marine life history phase. Models have been proposed to improve estimates of primary sex ratios, while technological advances promise a better understanding of how climate can influence different life stages and habitats. We suggest a number of research priorities for an improved understanding of how climate change may impact marine turtles, including: improved estimates of primary sex ratios, assessments of the implications of female-biased sex ratios and reduced male production, assessments of the variability in upper thermal limits of clutches, models of beach sediment movement under sea level rise, and assessments of impacts on foraging grounds. Lastly, we suggest that it is not yet possible to recommend manipulating aspects of turtle nesting ecology, as the evidence base with which to understand the results of such interventions is not robust enough, but that strategies for mitigation of stressors should be helpful, providing they consider the synergistic effects of climate change and other anthropogenic-induced threats to marine turtles, and focus on increasing resilience.

Climatic drivers of (changes in) bat migration phenology at Bracken Cave (USA)

Climate change is drastically changing the timing of biological events across the globe. Changes in the phenology of seasonal migrations between the breeding and wintering grounds have been observed across biological taxa, including birds, mammals, and insects. For birds, strong links have been shown between changes in migration phenology and changes in weather conditions at the wintering, stopover, and breeding areas. For other animal taxa, the current understanding of, and evidence for, climate (change) influences on migration still remains rather limited, mainly due to the lack of long-term phenology datasets. Bracken Cave in Texas (USA) holds one of the largest bat colonies of the world. Using weather radar data, a unique 23-year (1995-2017) long time series was recently produced of the spring and autumn migration phenology of Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) at Bracken Cave. Here, we analyse these migration phenology time series in combination with gridded temperature, precipitation, and wind data across Mexico and southern USA, to identify the climatic drivers of (changes in) bat migration phenology. Perhaps surprisingly, our extensive spatiotemporal search did not find temperature to influence either spring or autumn migration. Instead, spring migration phenology seems to be predominantly driven by wind conditions at likely wintering or spring stopover areas during the migration period. Autumn migration phenology, on the other hand, seems to be dominated by precipitation to the east and north-east of Bracken Cave. Long-term changes towards more frequent migration and favourable wind conditions have, furthermore, allowed spring migration to occur 16 days earlier. Our results illustrate how some of the remaining knowledge gaps on the influence of climate (change) on bat migration and abundance can be addressed using weather radar analyses.

First record of a Nathusius’ pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nathusii) overwintering at a latitude above 60°N

Highly mobile species are considered to be the first to respond to climate change by transforming their ranges of distribution. There is evidence suggesting that Pipistrellus nathusii, a species capable of long-distance migration, is expanding both its reproduction and overwintering ranges to the North. We recorded the echolocation calls of bats at 16 sites in South-Western Finland on two consecutive winters, and detected calls of P. nathusii at one of the sites throughout the second winter. To our knowledge, this is the northernmost record of an overwintering P. nathusii, and contributes to evidence that the species is already responding to climate change.

Non-parallel changes in songbird migration timing are not explained by changes in stopover duration

Shifts in the timing of animal migration are widespread and well-documented; however, the mechanism underlying these changes is largely unknown. In this study, we test the hypothesis that systematic changes in stopover duration—the time that individuals spend resting and refueling at a site—are driving shifts in songbird migration timing. Specifically, we predicted that increases in stopover duration at our study site could generate increases in passage duration—the number of days that a study site is occupied by a particular species—by changing the temporal breadth of observations and vise versa. We analyzed an uninterrupted 46-year bird banding dataset from Massachusetts, USA using quantile regression, which allowed us to detect changes in early-and late-arriving birds, as well as changes in passage duration. We found that median spring migration had advanced by 1.04 days per decade; that these advances had strengthened over the last 13 years; and that early-and late-arriving birds were advancing in parallel, leading to negligible changes in the duration of spring passage at our site (+0.07 days per decade). In contrast, changes in fall migration were less consistent. Across species, we found that median fall migration had delayed by 0.80 days per decade, and that changes were stronger in late-arriving birds, leading to an average increase in passage duration of 0.45 days per decade. Trends in stopover duration, however, were weak and negative and, as a result, could not explain any changes in passage duration. We discuss, and provide some evidence, that changes in population age-structure, cryptic geographic variation, or shifts in resource availability are consistent with increases in fall passage duration. Moreover, we demonstrate the importance of evaluating changes across the entire phenological distribution, rather than just the mean, and stress this as an important consideration for future studies.

Fitness consequences of different migratory strategies in partially migratory populations: A multi-taxa meta-analysis

Partial migration—wherein migratory and non‐migratory individuals exist within the same population—represents a behavioural dimorphism; for it to persist over time, both strategies should yield equal individual fitness. This balance may be maintained through trade‐offs where migrants gain survival benefits by avoiding unfavourable conditions, while residents gain breeding benefits from early access to resources.

There has been little overarching quantitative analysis of the evidence for this fitness balance. As migrants—especially long‐distance migrants—may be particularly vulnerable to environmental change, it is possible that recent anthropogenic impacts could drive shifts in fitness balances within these populations.

We tested these predictions using a multi‐taxa meta‐analysis. Of 2,939 reviewed studies, 23 contained suitable information for meta‐analysis, yielding 129 effect sizes.

Of these, 73% (n = 94) reported higher resident fitness, 22% (n = 28) reported higher migrant fitness, and 5% (n = 7) reported equal fitness. Once weighted for precision, we found balanced fitness benefits across the entire dataset, but a consistently higher fitness of residents over migrants in birds and herpetofauna (the best‐sampled groups). Residency benefits were generally associated with survival, not breeding success, and increased with the number of years of data over which effect sizes were calculated, suggesting deviations from fitness parity are not due to sampling artefacts.

A pervasive survival benefit to residency documented in recent literature could indicate that increased exposure to threats associated with anthropogenic change faced by migrating individuals may be shifting the relative fitness balance between strategies.

A Review of the Effects of Climate Change on Chelonians

Climate change is occurring at an unprecedented rate and has begun to modify the distribution and phenology of organisms worldwide. Chelonians are expected to be particularly vulnerable due to limited dispersal capabilities as well as widespread temperature-dependent sex determination. The number of papers published about the effects of climate change on turtles has increased exponentially over the last decade; here, I review the data from peer-reviewed publications to assess the likely impacts of climate change on individuals, populations, and communities. Based upon these studies future research should focus on: (1) Individual responses to climate change, particularly with respect to thermal biology, phenology, and microhabitat selection; (2) improving species distribution models by incorporating fine-scale environmental variables as well as physiological processes; (3) identifying the consequences of skewed sex ratios; and (4) assessments of community resilience and the development of methods to mitigate climate change impacts. Although detailed management recommendations are not possible at this point, careful consideration should be given regarding how to manage low vagility species as habitats shift poleward. In the worst-case scenario, proactive management may be required in order to ensure that widespread losses do not occur.

Differences in seasonal survival suggest species-specific reactions to climate change in two sympatric bat species

Long-lived animals with a low annual reproductive output need a long time to recover from population crashes and are, thus, likely to face high extinction risk, if the current global environmental change will increase mortality rates. To aid conservation of those species, knowledge on the variability of mortality rates is essential. Unfortunately, however, individual-based multiyear data sets that are required for that have only rarely been collected for free-ranging long-lived mammals. Here, we used a five-year data set comprising activity data of 1,445 RFID-tagged individuals of two long-lived temperate zone bat species, Natterer's bats (Myotis nattereri) and Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii), at their joint hibernaculum. Both species are listed as being of high conservation interest by the European Habitats Directive. Applying mixed-effects logistic regression, we explored seasonal survival differences in these two species which differ in foraging strategy and phenology. In both species, survival over the first winter of an individual's life was much lower than survival over subsequent winters. Focussing on adults only, seasonal survival patterns were largely consistent with higher winter and lower summer survival but varied in its level across years in both species. Our analyses, furthermore, highlight the importance of species-specific time periods for survival. Daubenton's bats showed a much stronger difference in survival between the two seasons than Natterer's bats. In one exceptional winter, the population of Natterer's bats crashed, while the survival of Daubenton's bats declined only moderately. While our results confirm the general seasonal survival pattern typical for hibernating mammals with higher winter than summer survival, they also show that this pattern can be reversed under particular conditions. Overall, our study points toward a high importance of specific time periods for population dynamics and suggests species-, population-, and age class-specific responses to global climate change.

Ongoing changes in migration phenology and winter residency at Bracken Bat Cave

Bats play an important role in agroecology and are effective bioindicators of environmental conditions, but little is known about their fundamental migration ecology, much less how these systems are responding to global change. Some of the world's largest bat populations occur during the summer in the south-central United States, when millions of pregnant females migrate from lower latitudes to give birth in communal maternity colonies. Despite a relatively large volume of research into these colonies, many fundamental questions regarding their abundance-including their intra- and interseasonal variability-remain unanswered, and even estimating the size of individual populations has been a long-running challenge. Overall, monitoring these bat populations at high temporal resolution (e.g., nightly) and across long time spans (e.g., decades) has been impossible. Here, we show 22 continuous years of nightly population counts at Bracken Cave, a large bat colony in south-central Texas, enabling the first climate-scale phenological analysis. Using quantitative radar monitoring, we found that spring migration and the summer reproductive cycle have advanced by approximately 2 weeks over the study period. Furthermore, we quantify the ongoing growth of a newly-established overwintering population that indicates a system-wide response to changing environmental conditions. Our observations reveal behavioral plasticity in bats' ability to adapt to changing resource availability, and provide the first long-term quantification of their response to a changing climate. As aerial insectivores, these changes in bat phenology and propensity for overwintering indicate probable shifts in prey availability, with clear implications for pest management across wider regional agrisystems.

Advances in methods for estimating stopover duration for migratory species using capture-recapture data

Many species are migratory, resulting in a life cycle divided into periodic stages occurring in different habitats occupied for a limited amount of time. Estimating the time spent in each habitat is crucial to understanding how individuals modulate their activities and thus to evolutionary ecology and conservation biology. Several methods, including some recent promising advances, can be used to estimate stopover duration as well as arrival and departure probabilities at sites where individuals are monitored using capture-recapture sampling. Our objectives in this study were to (1) describe the available models to estimate stopover duration, (2) illustrate with an original data set what kinds of questions can be addressed using the most recent methods, and (3) to provide in a detailed appendix a practical guide for implementing these methods in E-SURGE software. To illustrate the potential of these models for testing biological hypotheses, we used a capture-recapture data set on marbled newts (Triturus marmoratus). We used time-dependent and time-elapsed-since-arrival effects (using both Markovian and semi-Markov processes for the latter) to model stopover duration and the probability of arriving in and departing from a breeding pond for this species and compared the relative performance of the resulting models. Our findings showed a strong sex effect on stopover duration: females stayed on average 5.63 weeks in a breeding pond whereas males stayed only 3.03 weeks. In both sexes, the retention probability was mainly influenced by the time already spent there. Consequently, individuals of the same sex stayed a similar amount of time in a pond, although they did not arrive simultaneously but successively. The selected data set demonstrated the flexibility of these methods and their potential relevance for applications in evolutionary ecology and conservation.

Drivers of climate change impacts on bird communities

Climate change is reported to have caused widespread changes to species' populations and ecological communities. Warming has been associated with population declines in long-distance migrants and habitat specialists, and increases in southerly distributed species. However, the specific climatic drivers behind these changes remain undescribed. We analysed annual fluctuations in the abundance of 59 breeding bird species in England over 45 years to test the effect of monthly temperature and precipitation means upon population trends. Strong positive correlations between population growth and both winter and breeding season temperature were identified for resident and short-distance migrants. Lagged correlations between population growth and summer temperature and precipitation identified for the first time a widespread negative impact of hot, dry summer weather. Resident populations appeared to increase following wet autumns. Populations of long-distance migrants were negatively affected by May temperature, consistent with a potential negative effect of phenological mismatch upon breeding success. There was evidence for some nonlinear relationships between monthly weather variables and population growth. Habitat specialists and cold-associated species showed consistently more negative effects of higher temperatures than habitat generalists and southerly distributed species associated with warm temperatures. Results suggest that previously reported changes in community composition represent the accumulated effects of spring and summer warming. Long-term population trends were more significantly correlated with species' sensitivity to temperature than precipitation, suggesting that warming has had a greater impact on population trends than changes in precipitation. Months where there had been the greatest warming were the most influential drivers of long-term change. There was also evidence that species with the greatest sensitivity to extremes of precipitation have tended to decline. Our results provide novel insights about the impact of climate change on bird communities. Significant lagged effects highlight the potential for altered species' interactions to drive observed climate change impacts, although some community changes may have been driven by more immediate responses to warming. In England, resident and short-distance migrant populations have increased in response to climate change, but potentially at the expense of long-distance migrants, habitat specialists and cold-associated species.

Managing protected areas under climate change: challenges and priorities

The implementation of adaptation actions in local conservation management is a new and complex task with multiple facets, influenced by factors differing from site to site. A transdisciplinary perspective is therefore required to identify and implement effective solutions. To address this, the International Conference on Managing Protected Areas under Climate Change brought together international scientists, conservation managers, and decision-makers to discuss current experiences with local adaptation of conservation management. This paper summarizes the main issues for implementing adaptation that emerged from the conference. These include a series of conclusions and recommendations on monitoring, sensitivity assessment, current and future management practices, and legal and policy aspects. A range of spatial and temporal scales must be considered in the implementation of climate-adapted management. The adaptation process must be area-specific and consider the ecosystem and the social and economic conditions within and beyond protected area boundaries. However, a strategic overview is also needed: management at each site should be informed by conservation priorities and likely impacts of climate change at regional or even wider scales. Acting across these levels will be a long and continuous process, requiring coordination with actors outside the "traditional" conservation sector. To achieve this, a range of research, communication, and policy/legal actions is required. We identify a series of important actions that need to be taken at different scales to enable managers of protected sites to adapt successfully to a changing climate.

Assessing wave energy effects on biodiversity: the wave hub experience

Marine renewable energy installations harnessing energy from wind, wave and tidal resources are likely to become a large part of the future energy mix worldwide. The potential to gather energy from waves has recently seen increasing interest, with pilot developments in several nations. Although technology to harness wave energy lags behind that of wind and tidal generation, it has the potential to contribute significantly to energy production. As wave energy technology matures and becomes more widespread, it is likely to result in further transformation of our coastal seas. Such changes are accompanied by uncertainty regarding their impacts on biodiversity. To date, impacts have not been assessed, as wave energy converters have yet to be fully developed. Therefore, there is a pressing need to build a framework of understanding regarding the potential impacts of these technologies, underpinned by methodologies that are transferable and scalable across sites to facilitate formal meta-analysis. We first review the potential positive and negative effects of wave energy generation, and then, with specific reference to our work at the Wave Hub (a wave energy test site in southwest England, UK), we set out the methodological approaches needed to assess possible effects of wave energy on biodiversity. We highlight the need for national and international research clusters to accelerate the implementation of wave energy, within a coherent understanding of potential effects-both positive and negative.

Indiana bat summer maternity distribution: effects of current and future climates

Temperate zone bats may be more sensitive to climate change than other groups of mammals because many aspects of their ecology are closely linked to temperature. However, few studies have tried to predict the responses of bats to climate change. The Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) is a federally listed endangered species that is found in the eastern United States. The northerly distribution of Indiana bat summer maternity colonies relative to their winter distributions suggests that warmer climates may result in a shift in their summer distribution. Our objectives were to determine the climatic factors associated with Indiana bat maternity range and forecast changes in the amount and distribution of the range under future climates. We used Maxent to model the suitable climatic habitat of Indiana bats under current conditions and four future climate forecasts for 2021-30, 2031-40, 2041-50, and 2051-60. Average maximum temperature across the maternity season (May-August) was the most important variable in the model of current distribution of Indiana bat maternity colonies with suitability decreasing considerably above 28ºC. The areal extent of the summer maternity distribution of Indiana bats was forecasted to decline and be concentrated in the northeastern United States and Appalachian Mountains; the western part of the current maternity range (Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio) was forecasted to become climatically unsuitable under most future climates. Our models suggest that high temperatures may be a factor in roost-site selection at the regional scale and in the future, may also be an important variable at the microhabitat scale. When behavioral changes fail to mitigate the effects of high temperature, range shifts are likely to occur. Thus, habitat management for Indiana bat maternity colonies in the northeastern United States and Appalachian Mountains of the Southeast is critical as these areas will most likely serve as climatic refugia.

Predicting the impacts of climate change on a globally distributed species: the case of the loggerhead turtle

Marine turtles utilise terrestrial and marine habitats and several aspects of their life history are tied to environmental features that are altering due to rapid climate change. We overview the likely impacts of climate change on the biology of these species, which are likely centred upon the thermal ecology of this taxonomic group. Then, focusing in detail on three decades of research on the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta L.), we describe how much progress has been made to date and how future experimental and ecological focus should be directed. Key questions include: what are the current hatchling sex ratios from which to measure future climate-induced changes? What are wild adult sex ratios and how many males are necessary to maintain a fertile and productive population? How will climate change affect turtles in terms of their distribution?