A Review of Impacts of Climate Change on Birds:Implications of Long-term Studies

It is generally accepted that climate has changed greatly on a global scale, and that the earth＇s climate has already wanned by some degrees over the past century. Ample evidence shows that there have been apparent changes in avian population dynamics, life-history traits and geographic ranges in response to global climate change. This paper briefly reviews the possible effects of climate change on avian biology and ecology all over the world, with emphasis on new findings from several long-term studies in Europe and North America, which provide unique opportunities to investigate how long-term changes in climate affect birds at both individual and population levels. The implications of such long-term studies for future bird studies in China is discussed with hope that this review can contribute to the preparation and plan for studies of climatic effects on birds in China in the future.

Sources of uncertainty in exploring rangeland phenology： A case study in an alpine meadow on the central Tibetan Plateau

Global climate change has been found to substantially influence the phenology of rangeland,especially on the Tibetan Plateau. However, there is considerable controversy about the trends and causes of rangeland phenology owing to different phenological exploration methods and lack of ground validation. Little is known about the uncertainty in the exploration accuracy of vegetation phenology.Therefore, in this study, we selected a typical alpine rangeland near Damxung national meteorological station as a case study on central Tibetan Plateau, and identified several important sources influencing phenology to better understand their effects on phenological exploration. We found man-made land use was not easily distinguished from natural rangelands, and therefore this may confound phenological response to climate change in the rangeland. Change trends of phenology explored by four methods were similar, but ratio threshold method(RTM) was more suitable for exploring vegetation phenology in terms of the beginning of growing season(BGS) and end of growing season(EGS). However, some adjustments are needed when RTM is used in extreme drought years. MODIS NDVI/EVI dataset was most suitable for exploring vegetation phenology of BGS and EGS. The discrimination capacities of vegetation phenology declined with decreasing resolution of remote sensing images from MODIS to GIMMS AVHRR datasets. Additionally, distinct trends of phenological change rates were indicated in different terrain conditions, with advance of growing season in high altitudes but delay of season in lower altitudes. Therefore, it was necessary to eliminate interference of complex terrain and man-made land use to ensure the representativeness of natural vegetation. Moreover, selecting the appropriate method to explore rangelands and fully considering the impact of topography are important to accurately analyze the effects of climate change on vegetation phenology.

Spatial and temporal variation of vegetation phenology and its response to climate changes in Qaidam Basin from 2000 to 2015

Based on TIMESAT 3.2 platform, MODIS NDVI data(2000–2015) of Qaidam Basin are fitted, and three main phenological parameters are extracted with the method of dynamic threshold, including the start of growth season(SGS), the end of growth season(EGS) and the length of growth season(LGS). The spatial and temporal variation of vegetation phenology and its response to climate changes are analyzed respectively. The conclusions are as follows:(1) SGS is mainly delayed as a whole. Areas delayed are more than the advanced in EGS, and EGS is a little delayed as a whole. LGS is generally shortened.(2) With the altitude rising, SGS is delayed, EGS is advanced, and LGS is shortened and phenophase appears a big variation below 3000 m and above 5000 m.(3) From 2000 to 2015, the temperature appears a slight increase along with a big fluctuation, and the precipitation increases evidently.(4) Response of phenophase to precipitation is not obvious in the low elevation humid regions, where SGS arrives early and EGS delays; while, in the upper part of the mountain regions, SGS delays and EGS advances with temperature rising, SGS arrives early and EGS delays with precipitation increasing.