Data and code for "Spatial trends in morphology do not predict species’ responses to climatic warming in Australian birds"

Full description

In this study, using data from Australian birds, we examine whether changes in morphology through time is predicted by whether the species show adherence to Allen’s and Bergmann’s rule gradients across space. We collected body size (wing length) and bill surface area from 2014 museum skins from 17 species and modelled variation in these traits across space and time. Overall, across species, we found decreases in wing length across the latitudinal range (from south to north), as predicted by Bergmann’s rule, but these were not matched by changes in body size through time. Conversely, while we did find evidence for increases in relative bill surface area through time, as suggested by Allen’s rule in response to the climatic warming, there was no significant spatial trend in bill surface area. When comparing the relationship between spatial and temporal morphological trends for each species, we found no association between the size of their morphological gradients across latitude with those over time.

Data columns denote:
Species: binomial scientific name

Sex: sex, as determined at collection
Year: year of collection
Latitude: latitude of collection
WingLength: length of wing cord, measured with a butt-ended ruler
BillLength: length of the bill, measured using ditigal calipers
Nares: width between the nares, measured using ditigal calipers
BillHeight: depth of the bill, measured using digital calipers
Weight: body mass, as determined by the museum collection. Only available if noted at time of collection
Billsize: bill surface area, as determined from 3D surface scans
institutionCode: acronym of museum collection where specimen can be found
catalogNumber: individual number of the specimen in the collection
decimalLongitude: longitude of collection location
logBill: log10 transformed bill surface area
logWing: log10 transformed wing length