Table 1 Study eligibility criteria

Population: Species of animals or plants

Articles that report on animals and plants, with results that are species- or subspecies specific

Articles that report on organisms not classified as animals or plants, or include results that are presented for broader taxonomic groups (genus, family, etc.) or on a community-or assemblage-level

Exposure: Climate change variables (temperature and precipitation)

Articles that study responses to contemporary changes in temperature or precipitation due to modern, anthropogenic climate change

Articles that are based on paleoclimatic data, future climate change scenarios, temporary climate changes (e.g., ENSO, marine heatwaves) or seasonal climate variation, as well as articles that document range shifts in response to non-temperature or non-precipitation related climate variables (e.g., sea level rise, ocean acidification)

Comparator: Baseline temperature and/or precipitation conditions during the historical period

Articles that use empirical observations to describe changes in species distribution and/or range limits by comparing the contemporary observation(s) with at least one observation of the same type in the past

Articles that only predict future species’ range/distribution shifts based on simulations or projections, and articles that only use observations from a single point in time or those that do not specify the temporal scale

Outcome: Shift in spatial/geographic distribution

Articles that report or attempt to document a change in species’ range or spatial distribution (i.e., boundary level shifts), or spatial shifts in abundance (i.e., distribution within a range)

Articles that use proxy measurements to document changes in a species range (e.g., measuring species’ thermal tolerance or limits, measuring changes in adult to juvenile ratios)