Birds Are Tracking Climate Warming, But Not Fast Enough

Are species able to adapt their distribution to current climate warming? We provide the first measure of how much an entire taxonomic group (birds) is lagging behind climate warming.


We show that, year after year, birds are strongly affected by ongoing temperature increases. But our major finding is that the observed bird responses are not occurring fast enough: birds are accumulating a lag behind climate.


For scientists and policy makers, such a measure of a lag is highly needed since it is the only way to routinely assess the mismatch of biodiversity responses to temperature increases.


Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences


Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.


Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences