Chen et al. (2011) state: “Temperature gradients differ across the world, so a g

Question

Chen et al. (2011) state: “Temperature gradients differ across the world, so a given level of warming leads to different expected range shifts of species in different regions (20), assuming that species track climate changes. To estimate the expected shifts, we calculated the distances in latitude (kilometers) and elevation (meters) that species in a given region would have been required to move to track temperature changes and thus to experience the same average temperature at the end of the recording period as encountered at the start.” (5th para, p. 1025) Examine Fig 1A in Chen et al (2011).

1. Describe what the y-axis is measuring.

2. Describe what the x-axis is measuring.

3. What does the horizontal dashed line represent?

4. What does the diagonal represent?

5. Why would species distributions lag behind climate change?

Explanation / Answer

1) y-axis is measuring observed latitudnal shifts in kilometer which is the measure of how much a specie has moved away from the Equator.

2)  x-axis is measuring expected latitudnal shifts in kilometer which is a measure of how much a specie should move away from the equator due to increased global warming or we should say jet stream movement.

3) horizontal dashed line is representing the null position or zero shift line. This indicates that no latitude shift is being observed.

4) Diagonals represent 1:1 lines, where expected and observed responses are equal.

5) Species distributions lag behind climate change because the expected & observed shift rates are not same or indirectly we can say say that observed global warming rates are more than that of expexted global warming rate.

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