Climate Dipoles as Continental Drivers of Plant and Animal Populations

Benjamin Zuckerberg; Courtenay Strong; Jalene M LaMontagne; Scott St George; Julio L Betancourt; Walter D Koenig

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.010

Climate Dipoles as Continental Drivers of Plant and Animal Populations

Trends Ecol Evol. 2020 May;35(5):440-453. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.010. Epub 2020 Mar 5.

Authors

Benjamin Zuckerberg¹, Courtenay Strong², Jalene M LaMontagne³, Scott St George⁴, Julio L Betancourt⁵, Walter D Koenig⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Russell Labs 213, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0110, USA.
³ Department of Biological Sciences, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60614, USA.
⁴ Department of Geography, Environment and Society, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁵ Science and Decisions Center, US Geological Survey, Reston, VA, USA; Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁶ Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.

PMID: 32294425
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.010

Abstract

Ecological processes, such as migration and phenology, are strongly influenced by climate variability. Studying these processes often relies on associating observations of animals and plants with climate indices, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). A common characteristic of climate indices is the simultaneous emergence of opposite extremes of temperature and precipitation across continental scales, known as climate dipoles. The role of climate dipoles in shaping ecological and evolutionary processes has been largely overlooked. We review emerging evidence that climate dipoles can entrain species dynamics and offer a framework for identifying ecological dipoles using broad-scale biological data. Given future changes in climatic and atmospheric processes, climate and ecological dipoles are likely to shift in their intensity, distribution, and timing.

Keywords: climate change; climate variability; macroecology; macrosystems ecology; population dynamics; spatial synchrony.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution*
Climate Change
El Nino-Southern Oscillation*
Temperature