{"title":"Conservation of Pleske's Racerunner (Eremias pleskei) in a Changing Climate","authors":"A. Farashi, Mohammad Alizadeh-Noughani","doi":"10.5735/086.056.0109","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Although reptiles are the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebrates, crucial data on their extinction risks are lacking. The reptile species assessed by IUCN are only a fraction of those at risk of extinction. Thus, conservation planning and management decisions are hindered by the lack of ecological information on the species' distribution patterns and their habitat requirements. Pleske's racerunner (Eremias pleskei) is a rare and critically endangered species known to occur exclusively in the eastern Anatolian Montane Steppe ecoregion. In this study, we used ten species distribution model algorithms and 62 climate change scenarios (from 19 global climate models under four representative concentration pathways) to predict future habitat suitability for Pleske's racerunner in the Anatolian Montane Steppe ecoregion. Our results indicate that this species may in future migrate from its current distribution range towards the central and western areas of the Anatolian Montane Steppe ecoregion. Our results also show that the variation in the temperature-related variables in suitable habitats will increase in future as compared with the current conditions. It seems that due to climate change, in future, deserts will be appropriate for this species. The same mechanisms, however, will make some of its current habitats unsuitable. Dealing with uncertainties in climate change and species distribution modeling is a major challenge when planning strategies for species' conservation. We recommend conservation measures to be implemented to make sure that E. pleskei's current habitats remain suitable for it also in future.","PeriodicalId":50968,"journal":{"name":"Annales Zoologici Fennici","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2019-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annales Zoologici Fennici","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5735/086.056.0109","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although reptiles are the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebrates, crucial data on their extinction risks are lacking. The reptile species assessed by IUCN are only a fraction of those at risk of extinction. Thus, conservation planning and management decisions are hindered by the lack of ecological information on the species' distribution patterns and their habitat requirements. Pleske's racerunner (Eremias pleskei) is a rare and critically endangered species known to occur exclusively in the eastern Anatolian Montane Steppe ecoregion. In this study, we used ten species distribution model algorithms and 62 climate change scenarios (from 19 global climate models under four representative concentration pathways) to predict future habitat suitability for Pleske's racerunner in the Anatolian Montane Steppe ecoregion. Our results indicate that this species may in future migrate from its current distribution range towards the central and western areas of the Anatolian Montane Steppe ecoregion. Our results also show that the variation in the temperature-related variables in suitable habitats will increase in future as compared with the current conditions. It seems that due to climate change, in future, deserts will be appropriate for this species. The same mechanisms, however, will make some of its current habitats unsuitable. Dealing with uncertainties in climate change and species distribution modeling is a major challenge when planning strategies for species' conservation. We recommend conservation measures to be implemented to make sure that E. pleskei's current habitats remain suitable for it also in future.
期刊介绍:
Annales Zoologici Fennici publishes mainly original research reports, but also in-depth reviews and commentaries on all aspects of animal ecology and evolution, and fields related to them. Our aim is to promote papers which focus on the interactions among various components in the past and present environments by using integrative and cross-disciplinary approaches. This may be achieved by employing tools from different fields of research, such as (but not restricted to):
ecology and paleoecology,
molecular ecology and phylogeography,
conservation biology, human-induced contemporary evolution and wildlife management,
animal behaviour and interactions (including recognition systems and mechanisms),
paleontology (except systematics and taxonomy) and evolution,
bioenergetics.