Titre: Aire de répartition et changements climatiques: Comment les interactions biotiques moduleront-elles la réponse?
Climate change will likely cause an ecological redistribution of species because species distribution is tightly related to environmental gradients. For species who's distribution is influenced by the distribution of another species, biotic interactions may modify the relationship between the distribution and climate. Although biotic interactions are known to shape species distribution, there is no concensus on how they do so at large spatial scales. While classic correlative species distribution models do not account for interactions in their predictions, here I will model the dynamics of interacting species consisting of a species and its habitat to identify mechanisms that may cause non-linear responses to climate warming. I will use as a case study America's Northestern distribution of Bicknell's thrush and its boreal forest habitat to build a spatially explicit metapopulation model. Studying the impact of biotic interactions on the Bicknell's thrush response to climate change will bring new insights on the effect of interactions on the dynamics of species distribution and will provide to Corridor Appalachien realistic predictions on the future of the coniferous mountain tops and of the Bicknell’s thrush population found on their protected land in the Eastern Townships.