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Shared morphological consequences of global warming in North American migratory birds

Brian C. Weeks, David E. Willard, Aspen A. Ellis, Max L. Witynski, Mary Hennen, Benjamin M. Winger
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/610329
Brian C. Weeks
aMuseum of Zoology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Biological Sciences Building, 1105 N. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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David E. Willard
bGantz Family Collection Center, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605
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Aspen A. Ellis
aMuseum of Zoology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Biological Sciences Building, 1105 N. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Max L. Witynski
bGantz Family Collection Center, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605
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Mary Hennen
bGantz Family Collection Center, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605
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Benjamin M. Winger
aMuseum of Zoology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Biological Sciences Building, 1105 N. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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ABSTRACT

Increasing temperatures associated with climate change are predicted to cause reductions in body size, a key determinant of animal physiology and ecology. Using a four-decade specimen series of 70,716 individuals of 52 North American migratory bird species, we demonstrate that increasing annual summer temperature over the 40-year period drove consistent reductions in body size across these diverse taxa. Concurrently, wing length – which impacts nearly all aspects of avian ecology and behavior – has consistently increased across taxa. Our findings suggest that warming-induced body size reduction is a general response to climate change, and reveal a similarly consistent shift in an ecologically-important dimension of body shape. We hypothesize that increasing wing length represents a compensatory adaptation to maintain migration as reductions in body size have increased the metabolic cost of flight. An improved understanding of warming-induced morphological changes, and their limits, are important for predicting biotic responses to global change.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted April 18, 2019.
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Shared morphological consequences of global warming in North American migratory birds
Brian C. Weeks, David E. Willard, Aspen A. Ellis, Max L. Witynski, Mary Hennen, Benjamin M. Winger
bioRxiv 610329; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/610329
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Shared morphological consequences of global warming in North American migratory birds
Brian C. Weeks, David E. Willard, Aspen A. Ellis, Max L. Witynski, Mary Hennen, Benjamin M. Winger
bioRxiv 610329; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/610329

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