Ecological and evolutionary responses to recent climate change [Réponses écologique et évolutives aux récents changements climatique].

Résumé

Ecological changes in the phenology and distribution of plants and animals are occurring in all well-studied marine, freshwater, and terrestrial groups. These observed changes are heavily biased in the directions predicted from global warming and have been linked to local or regional climate change through correlations between climate and biological variation, field and laboratory experiments, and physiological research. Range-restricted species, particularly polar and mountaintop species, show severe range contractions and have been the first groups in which entire species have gone extinct due to recent climate change. Tropical coral reefs and amphibians have been most negatively affected. Predator-prey and plant-insect interactions have been disrupted when interacting species have responded differently to warming. Evolutionary adaptations to warmer conditions have occurred in the interiors of species' ranges, and resource use and dispersal have evolved rapidly at expanding range margins. Observed genetic shifts modulate local effects of climate change, but there is little evidence that they will mitigate negative effects at the species level.Montane and alpine-restricted small mammals, including marmots, were among the 1st taxa suggested as being particularly sensitive to climate change (McDonald and Brown 1992), and alpine marmots are increasingly recognized as potential harbingers thereof (e.g., Krajick 2004; Parmesan 2006).