We describe the discovery of a previously unknown population of Melodious Lark Mirafra cheniana from northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, some 2000 km north of what was previously thought to be its northern limit in central Zimbabwe. The identification of this population as M. cheniana is based primarily on analyses of mitochondrial DNA and song. We also clarify relationships within this genus by sequencing material of White-...

Identifying key traits that can serve as proxies for species drought resistance is crucial for predicting and mitigating the effects of climate change in diverse plant communities. Turgor loss point (π tlp ) is a recently emerged trait that has been linked to species distributions across gradients of water availability. However, a direct relationship between π tlp and species ability to survive drought has yet to be establishe...

As extreme climate events are predicted to become more frequent because of global climate change, understanding their impacts on natural systems is crucial. Tropical forests are vulnerable to droughts associated with extreme El Niño events. However, little is known about how tropical seedling communities respond to El Niño–related droughts, even though patterns of seedling survival shape future forest structure and diversity....

Aim Here we examine the functional profile of regional tree species pools across the latitudinal distribution of Neotropical moist forests, and test trait–climate relationships among local communities. We expected opportunistic strategies (acquisitive traits, small seeds) to be overrepresented in species pools further from the equator, but also in terms of abundance in local communities in currently wetter, warmer and more sea...

Anthropogenic climate change is expected to impact ecosystem structure, biodiversity and ecosystem services in Africa profoundly. We used the adaptive Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (aDGVM), which was originally developed and tested for Africa, to quantify sources of uncertainties in simulated African potential natural vegetation towards the end of the 21st century. We forced the aDGVM with regionally downscaled high‐resoluti...

This study uses two methods to diagnose the local Hadley circulation; first the zonally averaged mass stream function, and second the stream function vector method. The two methods have been applied to the ERA‐Interim reanalysis data for the period 1979–2015, to calculate both the climatology and trends of the Hadley cell. Both diagnostics advocate downwards mass flux being dominant over the subtropics, particularly over South...

Mid‐tropospheric closed‐lows (cold‐core cut‐off lows and warm‐core tropical lows) are important rain producing weather systems for the southern Africa region. Over South Africa, most wide‐spread flood events are caused by these systems. It is therefore important to explore the potential impact of anthropogenic forcing on the occurrence of closed‐lows and extreme rainfall events over the region. Coupled global circulation model...

The projected climate‐change signal in simulations by the Conformal‐Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM) over southern Africa is presented, with particular emphasis on the projected changes in circulation over the region. Current (1975–2005) and future (2070–2100; A2 scenario) climate simulations are used for this purpose. In the austral winter of the future climate, frontal rain bands are displaced to the south as a result of the s...

Aim A broad suit of climate data sets is becoming available for use in predictive species modelling. We compare the efficacy of using interpolated climate surfaces [Center for Resource and Environmental Studies (CRES) and Climate Research Unit (CRU)] or high‐resolution model‐derived climate data [Division of Atmospheric Research limited‐area model (DARLAM)] for predictive species modelling, using tick distributions from sub‐Sa...