Assessing Avian Biodiversity Loss Under Climate Change: A Comparative Analysis of Diversity Indices
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity Loss & Dynamics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 232
Special Issue Editors
Interests: vertebrates ecology and behavior; conservation biology; bird migration; global change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. Grupo de Investigación Zoología de Vertebrados, Universidad de Alicante, Apdo. 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
Interests: ecology; global change; human impacts; population dynamics; species model distributions; zoology; birds; raptors
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Birds are one of the best groups of animals for monitoring the effects of climate change. They are day-time active, conspicuous, easy to identify, and popular with many groups of people, including amateur birdwatchers and professional scientists. In many parts of the world, their distributions and numbers, as well as the timing of their migrations and breeding seasons, have been well monitored for decades. Migratory birds are likely to be more vulnerable than non-migrants because they can influenced by conditions in three different geographic locations: their breeding grounds, their wintering areas, and their migration routes. Individual birds also experience “carry-over effects,” such as when conditions experienced in wintering areas influence subsequent breeding success, or when conditions experienced on breeding grounds influence subsequent over-winter survival. A growing body of field and laboratory evidence indicates that migration is a dynamic and flexible behavior in birds that is greatly influenced by external factors. Many migrants are migrating earlier in spring than in the past, and some are migrating later in autumn. On the other hand, some species that once were entirely migratory are now partially migratory, with increasing numbers of individuals staying on their breeding grounds year-round. In some other species, individuals are now migrating shorter distances than in the past and over-wintering further north in the Northern Hemisphere. Some sedentary species are also moving from their former distribution areas, adapting to climate change. In the Northern Hemisphere, the populations of many species are decreasing in the southern part of their distribution area while increasing in the northern part of the same area. In some cases, these changes can cause conservation priorities to shift due to the incorrect use of a local scale.
We invite scholars and readers to engage with the academic content of this Special Issue and contribute to the ongoing effort to assess avian biodiversity loss under climate change.
Prof. Dr. Miguel Ferrer
Guest Editor
Dr. Jorge García-Macía
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- diversity index of birds
- climate change
- variation in distribution areas
- variation in productivity
- changes in migration of birds
- changes in distribution areas
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