December 2025
Lise Comte (Illinois State University, USA)
Jonathan Lenoir (CNRS, France)
Bioshifts project
Abstract
There is now compelling evidence that species across diverse taxonomic groups and regions are responding to climate change by shifting their geographical ranges, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystem functioning and human well-being. However, substantial variability remains in how, where, and why species shift, and much of this variation is still unexplained. The overarching goal of Bioshifts was to deepen our understanding of the processes driving range shifts, ultimately improving our capacity to forecast and manage the consequences of biodiversity redistribution under climate change. Drawing on a comprehensive geo-database of range-shift estimates compiled from the scientific literature and enriched with climate-velocity metrics and methodological descriptors (the “BioShifts” database), Bioshifts investigated the global patterns and mechanisms of biodiversity redistribution. This included examining the influence of climate exposure, habitat constraints, species traits, and evolutionary processes. The findings of Bioshifts provide new insight into the conditions under which commonly used niche-based models produce reliable forecasts of species redistributions, and how species traits and macroevolutionary processes shape contemporary range shifts.
Talk
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