Exposure to climate change drives stability or collapse of desert mammal and bird communities

High exposure to warming from climate change is expected to threaten biodiversity by pushing many species toward extinction. Such exposure is often assessed for all taxa at a location from climate projections, yet species have diverse strategies for buffering against temperature extremes. We compared changes in species occupancy and site-level richness of small mammal and bird communities in protected areas of the Mojave Desert using surveys spanning a century. Small mammal communities remained remarkably stable, whereas birds declined markedly in response to warming and drying. Simulations of heat flux identified different exposure to warming for birds and mammals, which we attribute to microhabitat use. Estimates from climate projections are unlikely to accurately reflect species' exposure without accounting for the effects of microhabitat buffering on heat flux.

Automated summary

The study found that small mammal communities in the Mojave Desert remained relatively stable, while bird populations declined significantly in response to warming and drying. This difference in response may be attributed to the different microhabitat use of birds and mammals.