Non‐Native Bird Populations Respond Differently to Their Environment and Exhibit Shifts in Ecological Niche Limits Across Continents

ABSTRACT Aim The degree to which species' niches remain stable over space and time–the niche conservatism hypothesis–is critical for predicting species' responses to environmental change. Tests of this hypothesis typically focus on changes in niche centroids and boundaries. An outstanding question is whether species' environmental associations differ within the interior of their niche space–that is, across the full range of occupied conditions–in original versus novel geographic space. Location Europe and North America. Time Period 1997–2018. Major Taxa Studied Birds. Methods We used over 400,000 observations collected over 22 years and across 28 countries to explore whether two common songbird species—European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ) and house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) – exhibit niche conservatism between their native European and non‐native North American ranges. We tested for niche conservatism via (1) an ordination approach that quantified change in niche shape and boundaries, and (2) generalised linear mixed effects models to quantify how abundance varied with the interaction between continent and climate or land cover variables. Results The ordination analysis indicated that both European starling and house sparrow exhibited niche conservatism between Europe and North America. However, abundance models revealed continental differences in how the species responded to temperature and land cover. The abundance models also revealed that areas with wetter conditions that were occupied by both species in their native European ranges were available but unoccupied in their non‐native North American ranges (i.e., niche unfilling). Main Conclusions Our work demonstrates that species can exhibit apparent consistency in niche boundaries but varied abundance responses to the environment within niche boundaries. Expanding the study of niche conservatism to explore changes both at the edge of and within niche boundaries would improve the ability to assess and predict species' invasion risk or sensitivity to ongoing global change.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Diversity and Distributions
Published
2025-10-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.70100
Primary Topic
Species Distribution and Climate Change
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Non‐Native Bird Populations Respond Differently to Their Environment and Exhibit Shifts in Ecological Niche Limits Across Continents

Thomas Vikstrøm, Tibor Szép, Petras Kurlavičius, Liba Pejchar et al.
Diversity and Distributions
Species Distribution and Climate Change
article

Non‐Native Bird Populations Respond Differently to Their Environment and Exhibit Shifts in Ecological Niche Limits Across Continents

Thomas Vikstrøm, Tibor Szép, Petras Kurlavičius, Liba Pejchar, Ingar Jostein Øien, Chris A. M. van Turnhout, Kristin P. Davis, Henrik G. Smith, Åke Lindström, Henning Heldbjerg, Ainārs Auniņš, Aleksi Lehikoinen, Primož Kmecl, Tomasz Chodkiewicz, Anna Gamero, John Atle Kålås, Benoît Fontaine, Nicolas Strebel, Helen R. Sofaer, Jiří Reif, Daniel Palm Eskildsen
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aim The degree to which species' niches remain stable over space and time–the niche conservatism hypothesis–is critical for predicting species' responses to environmental change. Tests of this hypothesis typically focus on changes in niche centroids and boundaries. An outstanding question is whether species' environmental associations differ within the interior of their niche space–that is, across the full range of occupied conditions–in original versus novel geographic space. Location Europe and North America. Time Period 1997–2018. Major Taxa Studied Birds. Methods We used over 400,000 observations collected over 22 years and across 28 countries to explore whether two common songbird species—European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ) and house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) – exhibit niche conservatism between their native European and non‐native North American ranges. We tested for niche conservatism via (1) an ordination approach that quantified change in niche shape and boundaries, and (2) generalised linear mixed effects models to quantify how abundance varied with the interaction between continent and climate or land cover variables. Results The ordination analysis indicated that both European starling and house sparrow exhibited niche conservatism between Europe and North America. However, abundance models revealed continental differences in how the species responded to temperature and land cover. The abundance models also revealed that areas with wetter conditions that were occupied by both species in their native European ranges were available but unoccupied in their non‐native North American ranges (i.e., niche unfilling). Main Conclusions Our work demonstrates that species can exhibit apparent consistency in niche boundaries but varied abundance responses to the environment within niche boundaries. Expanding the study of niche conservatism to explore changes both at the edge of and within niche boundaries would improve the ability to assess and predict species' invasion risk or sensitivity to ongoing global change.

Diversity and DistributionsVol. 31(10)
United States Geological Survey (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Helsinki (FI), Institut Català d'Ornitologia (ES), Hawaii Pacific University (US), Lund University (SE), Vytautas Magnus University (LT), Aarhus University (DK), Charles University (CZ), Colorado Parks and Wildlife (US), Swiss Ornithological Institute (CH), BirdLife Australia (AU), BirdLife International (KE), Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia (SI), Museum and Institute of Zoology (PL), Centre d'Écologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (FR), Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology (NL), Hungarian Astronomical Association (HU), NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (US), Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (ES), Finnish Museum of Natural History (FI), University of Nyíregyháza (HU), Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NO), Czech Society for Ornithology (CZ), Lithuanian Ornithological Society (LT), Palacký University Olomouc (CZ), University of Latvia (LV), Colorado State University (US)
Miljødirektoratet, Ympäristöministeriö, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, Klima- og miljødepartementet, U.S. Geological Survey
Openalex Percentile: Top 83%
Species Distribution and Climate Change
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.