Global warming, elevational ranges and the vulnerability of tropical biota
2011 | journal article. A publication with affiliation to the University of Göttingen.
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Global warming, elevational ranges and the vulnerability of tropical biota
Laurance, W. F.; Useche, D. C.; Shoo, L. P.; Herzog, S. K.; Kessler, M.; Escobar, F. & Brehm, G. et al. (2011)
Biological Conservation, 144(1) pp. 548-557. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.10.010
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- Authors
- Laurance, William F.; Useche, D. Carolina; Shoo, Luke P.; Herzog, Sebastian K.; Kessler, Michael; Escobar, Federico; Brehm, Gunnar; Axmacher, Jan C.; Chen, I-Ching; Arellano Gamez, Lucrecia; Hietz, Peter; Fiedler, Konrad; Pyrcz, Tomasz; Wolf, Jan; Merkord, Christopher L.; Cardelus, Catherine; Marshall, Andrew R.; Ah-Peng, Claudine; Aplet, Gregory H.; del Coro Arizmendi, M.; Baker, William J.; Barone, John; Bruehl, Carsten A.; Bussmann, Rainer W.; Cicuzza, Daniele; Eilu, Gerald; Favila, Mario E.; Hemp, Andreas; Hemp, Claudia; Homeier, Jürgen ; Hurtado, Johanna; Jankowski, Jill; Kattan, Gustavo; Kluge, Jürgen ; Kroemer, Thorsten; Lees, David C.; Lehnert, Marcus; Longino, John T.; Lovett, Jon; Martin, Patrick H.; Patterson, Bruce D.; Pearson, Richard G.; Peh, Kelvin S-H; Richardson, Barbara A.; Richardson, Michael J.; Samways, Michael J.; Senbeta, Feyera; Smith, Thomas B.; Utteridge, Timothy M. A.; Watkins, James E.; Wilson, Rohan; Williams, Stephen E.; Thomas, Christoph
- Abstract
- Tropical species with narrow elevational ranges may be thermally specialized and vulnerable to global warming. Local studies of distributions along elevational gradients reveal small-scale patterns but do not allow generalizations among geographic regions or taxa. We critically assessed data from 249 studies of species elevational distributions in the American, African, and Asia-Pacific tropics. Of these, 150 had sufficient data quality, sampling intensity, elevational range, and freedom from serious habitat disturbance to permit robust across-study comparisons. We found four main patterns: (1) species classified as elevational specialists (upper- or lower-zone specialists) are relatively more frequent in the American than Asia-Pacific tropics, with African tropics being intermediate; (2) elevational specialists are rare on islands, especially oceanic and smaller continental islands, largely due to a paucity of upper-zone specialists; (3) a relatively high proportion of plants and ectothermic vertebrates (amphibians and reptiles) are upper-zone specialists; and (4) relatively few endothermic vertebrates (birds and mammals) are upper-zone specialists. Understanding these broad-scale trends will help identify taxa and geographic regions vulnerable to global warming and highlight future research priorities. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Issue Date
- 2011
- Journal
- Biological Conservation
- ISSN
- 0006-3207