- Laurance, William F.
- Useche, D. Carolina
- Shoo, Luke P.
- Herzog, Sebastian K.
- Kessler, Michael
- Escobar, Federico
- Brehm, Gunnar
- Axmacher, Jan C.
- Chen, I-Ching
- Arellano Gamez, Lucrecia
- Hietz, Peter
- Fiedler, Konrad
- Pyrcz, Tomasz
- Wolf, Jan
- Merkord, Christopher L.
- Cardelus, Catherine
- Marshall, Andrew R.
- Ah-Peng, Claudine
- Aplet, Gregory H.
- del Coro Arizmendi, M.
- Baker, William J.
- Barone, John
- Bruehl, Carsten A.
- Bussmann, Rainer W.
- Cicuzza, Daniele
- Eilu, Gerald
- Favila, Mario E.
- Hemp, Andreas
- Hemp, Claudia
- Homeier, Juergen
- Hurtado, Johanna
- Jankowski, Jill
- Kattan, Gustavo
- Kluge, Juergen
- Kroemer, Thorsten
- Lees, David C.
- Lehnert, Marcus
- Longino, John T.
- Lovett, Jon
- Martin, Patrick H.
- Patterson, Bruce D.
- Pearson, Richard G.
- Peh, Kelvin S-H
- Richardson, Barbara
- Richardson, Michael
- Samways, Michael J.
- Senbeta, Feyera
- Smith, Thomas B.
- Utteridge, Timothy M. A.
- Watkins, James E.
- Wilson, Rohan
- Williams, Stephen E.
- Thomas, Chris D.
Tropical species with narrow elevational ranges may be thermally specialized and vulnerable to global warming. Local studies of distributions along elevational gradients reveal small-scale patterns but do not allow generalizations among geographic regions or taxa. We critically assessed data from 249 studies of species elevational distributions in the American, African, and Asia-Pacific tropics. Of these, 150 had sufficient data quality, sampling intensity, elevational range, and freedom from serious habitat disturbance to permit robust across-study comparisons. We found four main patterns: (1) species classified as elevational specialists (upper- or lower-zone specialists) are relatively more frequent in the American than Asia-Pacific tropics, with African tropics being intermediate; (2) elevational specialists are rare on islands, especially oceanic and smaller continental islands, largely due to a paucity of upper-zone specialists; (3) a relatively high proportion of plants and ectothermic vertebrates (amphibians and reptiles) are upper-zone specialists; and (4) relatively few endothermic vertebrates (birds and mammals) are upper-zone specialists. Understanding these broad-scale trends will help identify taxa and geographic regions vulnerable to global warming and highlight future research priorities. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Africa
- Asia-Pacific
- Biodiversity
- Climate change
- Elevational range
- Endemism
- Extinction
- Global warming
- Montane areas
- Neotropics
- Thermal tolerance
- Tropical ecosystems
- CLIMATE-CHANGE
- RAIN-FORESTS
- SPECIES RICHNESS
- WET TROPICS
- AMPHIBIAN EXTINCTIONS
- HIGH-TEMPERATURES
- MOUNTAIN PASSES
- PUERTO-RICO
- COSTA-RICA
- DIVERSITY
[Laurance, William F.; Pearson, Richard G.] James Cook Univ, Sch Marine & Trop Biol, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia; [Laurance, William F.; Useche, D. Carolina] Smithsonian Trop Res Inst, Balboa, Ancon, Panama; [Shoo, Luke P.; Williams, Stephen E.] James Cook Univ, Ctr Biodivers & Climate Change Res, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia; [Herzog, Sebastian K.] BirdLife Int, Asociac Armonia, Santa Cruz, Bolivia; [Kessler, Michael; Cicuzza, Daniele; Kluge, Juergen] Univ Zurich, Inst Systemat Bot, Zurich, Switzerland; [Escobar, Federico; Arellano Gamez, Lucrecia; Favila, Mario E.] Inst Ecol, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico; [Brehm, Gunnar] Inst Spezielle Zool & Evolut Biol Phyletischem Mu, Jena, Germany; [Axmacher, Jan C.] UCL, Dept Geog, London, England; [Chen, I-Ching; Thomas, Chris D.] Univ York, Dept Biol, York YO10 5DD, N Yorkshire, England; [Hietz, Peter] Univ Nat Resources & Appl Life Sci, Inst Bot, Vienna, Austria; [Fiedler, Konrad] Univ Vienna, Dept Anim Biodivers, Vienna, Austria; [Pyrcz, Tomasz] Jagiellonian Univ, Zool Museum, Krakow, Poland; [Wolf, Jan] Univ Amsterdam, Inst Biodivers & Ecosyst Dynam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; [Merkord, Christopher L.] Univ Missouri, Div Biol Sci, Columbia, MO 65211 USA; [Cardelus, Catherine; Watkins, James E.] Colgate Univ, Dept Biol, Hamilton, NY 13346 USA; [Marshall, Andrew R.; Lovett, Jon] Univ York, Dept Environm, Ctr Integrat Res Conservat & Learning, York YO10 5DD, N Yorkshire, England; [Marshall, Andrew R.; Lovett, Jon] Flamingo Land Ltd, Malton, N Yorkshire, England; [Ah-Peng, Claudine] Univ Reunion, St Denis, Reunion; [Aplet, Gregory H.] Wilderness Soc, Denver, CO USA; [del Coro Arizmendi, M.] Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Ecol Lab, Mexico City 04510, DF, Mexico; [Baker, William J.; Utteridge, Timothy M. A.] Royal Bot Gardens, Surrey, England; [Barone, John] Columbus State Univ, Dept Biol, Columbus, GA USA; [Bruehl, Carsten A.] Univ Koblenz Landau, Inst Environm Sci, Landau, Germany; [Bussmann, Rainer W.] Missouri Bot Garden, St Louis, MO USA; [Eilu, Gerald] Makerere Univ, Fac Forestry & Nat Conservat, Kampala, Uganda; [Hemp, Andreas; Hemp, Claudia] Lehrstuhl Tierokol 2, Bayreuth, Germany; [Homeier, Juergen] Univ Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany; [Hurtado, Johanna] Univ Costa Rica, San Pedro, Costa Rica; [Jankowski, Jill] Univ Florida, Dept Zool, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA; [Kattan, Gustavo] Pontificia Univ Javeriana, Dept Ciencias Nat & Matemat, Cali, Colombia; [Kroemer, Thorsten] Univ Veracruzana, Ctr Invest Trop, Xalapa 91000, Veracruz, Mexico; [Lees, David C.] Nat Hist Museum, Dept Entomol, London SW7 5BD, England; [Lehnert, Marcus] Staatliches Museum Nat Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany; [Longino, John T.] Evergreen State Coll, Olympia, WA 98505 USA; [Martin, Patrick H.] Colorado State Univ, Dept Hort & Landscape Architecture, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA; [Patterson, Bruce D.] Field Museum Nat Hist, Chicago, IL 60605 USA; [Peh, Kelvin S-H] Univ Leeds, Sch Geog, Leeds LS2 9JT, W Yorkshire, England; [Richardson, Barbara; Richardson, Michael] Univ Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, Inst Trop Ecosyst Studies, San Juan, PR USA; [Samways, Michael J.] Univ Stellenbosch, Dept Conservat Ecol & Entomol, ZA-7600 Stellenbosch, South Africa; [Senbeta, Feyera] Univ Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; [Smith, Thomas B.] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Ctr Trop Res, Los Angeles, CA USA; [Wilson, Rohan] Australian Natl Univ, Res Sch Biol, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Laurance, WF (reprint author), James Cook Univ, Sch Marine & Trop Biol, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia.
- Australia
- Austria
- Bolivia
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Ethiopia
- France
- Germany
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Panama
- Poland
- South Africa
- Switzerland
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- United States
