Funding Fitz research: Fynbos endemic birds: Vulnerability and adaptation to land use and climate change

There are few greater challenges facing biodiversity today than that posed by climate change. Climate change impacts on southern African biodiversity will likely be significant, given our high levels of species endemism, particularly when species’ options for moving into newly suitable climate space are constrained by land use change, including fragmentation. South Africa’s fynbos biome, a precious global biodiversity hotspot, is threatened by urbanization, invasive alien plants and climate change. Fynbos endemic birds have highly constrained global ranges at the tip of a continent, and are a valuable system for testing current hypotheses about endemic species vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in distinctive biodiversity zones. They are also an excellent opportunity for deepening our understanding of vulnerability by looking at the ‘whole bird’ – its behavioural, physiological, ecological and demographic responses to change.

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