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Science 10 October 2008:
Vol. 322. no. 5899, pp. 261 - 264
DOI: 10.1126/science.1163428
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Reports

Impact of a Century of Climate Change on Small-Mammal Communities in Yosemite National Park, USA

Craig Moritz,1,2* James L. Patton,1,2 Chris J. Conroy,1 Juan L. Parra,1,2 Gary C. White,3 Steven R. Beissinger1,4

We provide a century-scale view of small-mammal responses to global warming, without confounding effects of land-use change, by repeating Grinnell's early–20th century survey across a 3000-meter-elevation gradient that spans Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Using occupancy modeling to control for variation in detectability, we show substantial (~500 meters on average) upward changes in elevational limits for half of 28 species monitored, consistent with the observed ~3°C increase in minimum temperatures. Formerly low-elevation species expanded their ranges and high-elevation species contracted theirs, leading to changed community composition at mid- and high elevations. Elevational replacement among congeners changed because species' responses were idiosyncratic. Though some high-elevation species are threatened, protection of elevation gradients allows other species to respond via migration.

1 Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
2 Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
3 Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
4 Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: craigm{at}berkeley.edu

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