Nature Communications (Mar 2023)
Global Protected Areas as refuges for amphibians and reptiles under climate change
- Chunrong Mi,
- Liang Ma,
- Mengyuan Yang,
- Xinhai Li,
- Shai Meiri,
- Uri Roll,
- Oleksandra Oskyrko,
- Daniel Pincheira-Donoso,
- Lilly P. Harvey,
- Daniel Jablonski,
- Barbod Safaei-Mahroo,
- Hanyeh Ghaffari,
- Jiri Smid,
- Scott Jarvie,
- Ronnie Mwangi Kimani,
- Rafaqat Masroor,
- Seyed Mahdi Kazemi,
- Lotanna Micah Nneji,
- Arnaud Marius Tchassem Fokoua,
- Geraud C. Tasse Taboue,
- Aaron Bauer,
- Cristiano Nogueira,
- Danny Meirte,
- David G. Chapple,
- Indraneil Das,
- Lee Grismer,
- Luciano Javier Avila,
- Marco Antônio Ribeiro Júnior,
- Oliver J. S. Tallowin,
- Omar Torres-Carvajal,
- Philipp Wagner,
- Santiago R. Ron,
- Yuezhao Wang,
- Yuval Itescu,
- Zoltán Tamás Nagy,
- David S. Wilcove,
- Xuan Liu,
- Weiguo Du
Affiliations
- Chunrong Mi
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Liang Ma
- School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University
- Mengyuan Yang
- Zhejiiang University
- Xinhai Li
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Shai Meiri
- School of Zoology and Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University
- Uri Roll
- Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Oleksandra Oskyrko
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Daniel Pincheira-Donoso
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast
- Lilly P. Harvey
- School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Campus
- Daniel Jablonski
- Department of Zoology, Comenius University in Bratislava
- Barbod Safaei-Mahroo
- Pars Herpetologists Institute, Corner of third Jahad alley, Arash Str., Jalal-e Ale-Ahmad Boulevard
- Hanyeh Ghaffari
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kurdistan
- Jiri Smid
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University
- Scott Jarvie
- Otago Regional Council, Dunedin
- Ronnie Mwangi Kimani
- National Museum of Kenya, Herpetology Section
- Rafaqat Masroor
- Zoological Sciences Division, Pakistan Museum of Natural History
- Seyed Mahdi Kazemi
- Zagros Herpetological Institute, Somayyeh Avenue
- Lotanna Micah Nneji
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University
- Arnaud Marius Tchassem Fokoua
- Laboratory of Zoology, University of Yaoundé
- Geraud C. Tasse Taboue
- Multipurpose Research Station, Institute of Agricultural Research for development
- Aaron Bauer
- Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University
- Cristiano Nogueira
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo
- Danny Meirte
- Royal Museum for Central Africa
- David G. Chapple
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University
- Indraneil Das
- Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
- Lee Grismer
- Department of Biology, La Sierra University
- Luciano Javier Avila
- Grupo Herpetología Patagónica (GHP-LASIBIBE), Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales (IPEEC-CONICET)
- Marco Antônio Ribeiro Júnior
- Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University
- Oliver J. S. Tallowin
- UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre
- Omar Torres-Carvajal
- Museo de Zoología, Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
- Philipp Wagner
- Allwetterzoo
- Santiago R. Ron
- Museo de Zoología, Escuela de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia, Universidad Católica del Ecuador
- Yuezhao Wang
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Yuval Itescu
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm
- Zoltán Tamás Nagy
- Independent researcher
- David S. Wilcove
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University
- Xuan Liu
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Weiguo Du
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36987-y
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 14,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 11
Abstract
Abstract Protected Areas (PAs) are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation. Here, we collated distributional data for >14,000 (~70% of) species of amphibians and reptiles (herpetofauna) to perform a global assessment of the conservation effectiveness of PAs using species distribution models. Our analyses reveal that >91% of herpetofauna species are currently distributed in PAs, and that this proportion will remain unaltered under future climate change. Indeed, loss of species’ distributional ranges will be lower inside PAs than outside them. Therefore, the proportion of effectively protected species is predicted to increase. However, over 7.8% of species currently occur outside PAs, and large spatial conservation gaps remain, mainly across tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, and across non-high-income countries. We also predict that more than 300 amphibian and 500 reptile species may go extinct under climate change over the course of the ongoing century. Our study highlights the importance of PAs in providing herpetofauna with refuge from climate change, and suggests ways to optimize PAs to better conserve biodiversity worldwide.
