Globally, rising temperatures are increasingly favoring warm-affiliated species. Although changes in community composition are typically measured by the mean temperature affinity of species (the community temperature index, CTI), they may be driven by different processes and accompanied by shifts in the diversity of temperature affinities and breadth of species thermal niches. To resolve the pathways to community warming in Finnish flora and fauna, we examined multidecadal changes in the dominance and diversity of temperature affinities among understory forest plant, freshwater phytoplankton, butterfly, moth, and bird communities. CTI increased for all animal communities, with no change observed for plants or phytoplankton. In addition, the diversity of temperature affinities declined for all groups except butterflies, and this loss was more pronounced for the fastest-warming communities. These changes were driven in animals mainly by a decrease in cold-affiliated species and an increase in warm-affiliated species. In plants and phytoplankton the decline of thermal diversity was driven by declines of both cold- and warm-affiliated species. Plant and moth communities were increasingly dominated by thermal specialist species, and birds by thermal generalists. In general, climate warming outpaced changes in both the mean and diversity of temperature affinities of communities. Our results highlight the complex dynamics underpinning the thermal reorganization of communities across a large spatiotemporal gradient, revealing that extinctions of cold-affiliated species and colonization by warm-affiliated species lag behind changes in ambient temperature, while communities become less thermally diverse. Such changes can have important implications for community structure and ecosystem functioning under accelerating rates of climate change.

Animal Demography and Ecology Unit The Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies Spanish National Research Council University of the Balearic Islands Esporles ES 07190 Spain

Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala SE 75007 Sweden

Department of Biology University of Turku Turku FI 20014 Finland

Department of Botany Palacký University in Olomouc Olomouc CZ 777900 Czech Republic

Department of Ecology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala SE 75007 Sweden

Department of Environment Forest and Nature Lab Ghent University Gontrode B 9090 Belgium

Department of Geobotany and Botanical Garden Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg D 06099 Germany

Department of Mathematics and Statistics Faculty of Science University of Helsinki Helsinki FI 00014 Finland

Department of Urban and Rural Development Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala SE 75007 Sweden

Department of Vegetation Ecology Faculty of Forestry Technical University in Zvolen Zvolen SK 96053 Slovakia

Department of Zoology Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation University of Johannesburg Auckland Park ZA 2006 South Africa

Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences Research Center for Ecological Change Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme University of Helsinki Helsinki FI 00014 Finland

Finnish Museum of Natural History University of Helsinki Helsinki FI 00014 Finland

Institute of Botany Czech Academy of Sciences Brno CZ 60200 Czech Republic

Institute of Geography and Geoecology Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Karlsruhe D 76131 Germany

Kainuu Centre for Economic Development Transport and the Environment Kajaani FI 87101 Finland

Natural Resources Institute Finland Helsinki FI 00790 Finland

Nature Solutions Unit Finnish Environment Institute Helsinki FI 00790 Finland

Norwegian Institute for Water Research Oslo NO 0579 Norway

Research Center for Ecological Change Organismal and Evolutionary Research Programme Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Helsinki Helsinki FI 00014 Finland

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Thermal homogenization of boreal communities in response to climate warming