Effects of climate and land-cover change on the conservation status of gibbons |
| |
Authors: | Li Yang Tao Chen Kai-Chong Shi Lu Zhang Ngwe Lwin Peng-Fei Fan |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China;2. Myanmar Programme, Fauna and Flora International, Yangon, Myanmar |
| |
Abstract: | Species shift their distribution in response to climate and land-cover change, which may result in a spatial mismatch between currently protected areas (PAs) and priority conservation areas (PCAs). We examined the effects of climate and land-cover change on potential range of gibbons and sought to identify PCAs that would conserve them effectively. We collected global gibbon occurrence points and modeled (ecological niche model) their current and potential 2050s ranges under climate-change and different land-cover-change scenarios. We examined change in range and PA coverage between the current and future ranges of each gibbon species. We applied spatial conservation prioritization to identify the top 30% PCAs for each species. We then determined how much of the PCAs are conserved in each country within the global range of gibbons. On average, 31% (SD 22) of each species’ current range was covered in PAs. PA coverage of the current range of 9 species was <30%. Nine species lost on average 46% (SD 29) of their potential range due to climate change. Under climate-change with an optimistic land-cover-change scenario (B1), 12 species lost 39% (SD 28) of their range. In a pessimistic land-cover-change scenario (A2), 15 species lost 36% (SD 28) of their range. Five species lost significantly more range under the A2 scenario than the B1 scenario (p = 0.01, SD 0.01), suggesting that gibbons will benefit from effective management of land cover. PA coverage of future range was <30% for 11 species. On average, 32% (SD 25) of PCAs were covered by PAs. Indonesia contained more species and PCAs and thus has the greatest responsibility for gibbon conservation. Indonesia, India, and Myanmar need to expand their PAs to fulfill their responsibility to gibbon conservation. Our results provide a baseline for global gibbon conservation, particularly for countries lacking gibbon research capacity. |
| |
Keywords: | gibbons PA coverage mismatch primates range shift relative responsibilities assessment spatial conservation prioritization cambio de distribución disparidad de cobertura de las AP evaluación gibones primates priorización de la conservación espacial responsabilidades relativas 长臂猿 保护空缺 灵长类 分布区变化 相对责任评价 空间保护规划 |
|
|