Microgeography, Not Just Latitude, Drives Climate Overlap on Mountains from Tropical to Polar Ecosystems
David Klinges, dklinges9@gmail.com
Brett Scheffers, brett.scheffers@ufl.edu
Paper Press release from The American Naturalist here
An extension of the climate variability hypothesis is that relatively stable climate, such as that of the tropics, induces distinct thermal bands across elevation that render dispersal over tropical mountains difficult compared with temperate mountains. Yet ecosystems are not thermally static in space-time, especially at small scales, which might render some mountains greater thermal isolators than others. Here we provide an extensive investigation of temperature drivers from fine to coarse scales, and we demonstrate that the degree of similarity in temperatures at high and low elevations on mountains is driven by more than just absolute mountain height and latitude. We compiled a database of 29 mountains spanning six continents to characterize thermal overlap by vertically stratified microhabitats and biomes and owing to seasonal changes in foliage, demonstrating via mixed effects modeling that micro- and mesogeography more strongly influence thermal overlap than macrogeography. Impressively, an increase of 1 m of vertical microhabitat height generates an increase in overlap equivalent to a 5.26° change in latitude. In addition, forested mountains have reduced thermal overlap—149% lower—relative to nonforested mountains. We provide evidence in support of a climate hypothesis that emphasizes microgeography as a determinant of dispersal, demographics, and behavior, thereby refining the classical theory of macroclimate variability as a prominent driver of biogeography.
Hello! I'm glad you are interested in using this data. **Please note, many folks contributed data to this synthesis and deserve credit. See below for the list of primary data source citations. You will need to attribute (cite) these primary data sources, AS WELL AS this product, when using the database. See the CC0 license on this repository for more information. Two data sources used in the study have been provided in this repository in fully disaggregated format, per the request of the primary authors. **
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Please view /docs/citations.bib for a BibTex file of all citations. You can import these citations in Zotero via File>Import, and in Mendeledy via File>Import>BibTex (*.bib).
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