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Evidence for intraspecific phenotypic variation in songbirds along elevation gradients in central Europe
Author(s) -
Sander Martha Maria,
Chamberlain Dan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ibis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1474-919X
pISSN - 0019-1019
DOI - 10.1111/ibi.12843
Subject(s) - intraspecific competition , ringing , elevation (ballistics) , songbird , range (aeronautics) , variation (astronomy) , wing , ecology , biology , materials science , geometry , mathematics , physics , filter (signal processing) , computer science , astrophysics , engineering , composite material , computer vision , aerospace engineering
Studying phenotypic variations along gradients may provide insights into mechanisms that drive species distributions and thus can be useful indicators of environmental change. In mountains, the study of phenotypic variation along elevation gradients is of increasing relevance due to the impacts of climate change. We analysed European ringing data to measure the direction of phenotypic variation along elevation gradients in six common, resident songbird species occurring along a wide elevational range. We modelled intraspecific change in wing length, body mass and their ratio with elevation and found a significant increase in wing length and a decrease in body mass at high elevations. The results of our exploratory analysis show the potential that continent‐wide ringing databases offer to describe patterns of phenotypic variation along environmental gradients.