2025Publication

Long-term trait change reshapes bird community functional structure

A new study considers how changes within species can shape the functional structure of bird communities over time.

Bird communities are often described using differences among species. Yet traits can also change within a species over time, and those changes may influence how we understand the functional structure of a whole community.

Our study brings long-term intraspecific trait change into this community-level picture. By connecting change within species to broader patterns across bird communities, the work highlights why historical and contemporary trait information should be considered together.

Four panels showing changes in community-weighted mean body length, absolute wing length, tail length, and relative wing length from 1970 to 2020, with and without intraspecific trait change — **Figure 2. Community-weighted mean trait changes over time with vs. without intraspecific trait change**

The paper was published in Current Biology in 2025.

Publication

Zheng, S., Lindenmayer, D.B., Sreekar, R., Hua, F., Hu, J., Chen, Q., Ma, Z., Li, B., and Liu, J. 2025. Effects of long-term intraspecific trait change on bird community functional structure. Current Biology.

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