Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Integrating climate, ecophysiology, and forest cover to estimate the vulnerability of sloths to climate change

Integrating climate, ecophysiology, and forest cover to estimate the vulnerability of sloths to... Global change imposes multiple challenges on species and, thus, a reliable prediction of current and future vulnerability of species must consider multiple stressors and intrinsic traits of species. Climate, physiology, and forest cover, for example, are required to evaluate threat to thermolabile forest-dependent species, such as sloths (Bradypus spp.; Mammalia: Xenarthra). Here, we estimated future changes in the distribution of three sloth species using a metabolic-hybrid model focused on climate (climatic only, i.e., CO approach) and adding forest cover constraints to distribution of species (climate plus land cover, i.e., CL approach). We used an innovative method to generate estimates of physiological parameters for endotherms, validated with field data. The CF approach predicted a future net expansion of distribution of B. torquatus and B. variegatus, and a future net contraction of distribution of B. tridactylus. The inclusion of forest cover constraints, however, reversed the predictions for B. torquatus, with a predicted net distribution contraction. It also reduced expansion of B. variegatus, although still showing a large net expansion. Thus, B. variegatus is not predicted to be threatened in the future; B. tridactylus emerges as the species most vulnerable to climate change, but with no considerable forest losses, while B. torquatus shows the opposite pattern. Our study highlights the importance of incorporating multiple stressors in predictive models in general. To increase resilience of species to climate change, it is key to control deforestation in the Amazon for B. tridactylus, and to promote reforestation in the Atlantic Forest for B. torquatus. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Mammalogy Oxford University Press

Integrating climate, ecophysiology, and forest cover to estimate the vulnerability of sloths to climate change

Download PDF
12 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/oxford-university-press/integrating-climate-ecophysiology-and-forest-cover-to-estimate-the-F6UFNqW5Ha

References (96)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Mammalogists, www.mammalogy.org.
ISSN
0022-2372
eISSN
1545-1542
DOI
10.1093/jmammal/gyac043
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Global change imposes multiple challenges on species and, thus, a reliable prediction of current and future vulnerability of species must consider multiple stressors and intrinsic traits of species. Climate, physiology, and forest cover, for example, are required to evaluate threat to thermolabile forest-dependent species, such as sloths (Bradypus spp.; Mammalia: Xenarthra). Here, we estimated future changes in the distribution of three sloth species using a metabolic-hybrid model focused on climate (climatic only, i.e., CO approach) and adding forest cover constraints to distribution of species (climate plus land cover, i.e., CL approach). We used an innovative method to generate estimates of physiological parameters for endotherms, validated with field data. The CF approach predicted a future net expansion of distribution of B. torquatus and B. variegatus, and a future net contraction of distribution of B. tridactylus. The inclusion of forest cover constraints, however, reversed the predictions for B. torquatus, with a predicted net distribution contraction. It also reduced expansion of B. variegatus, although still showing a large net expansion. Thus, B. variegatus is not predicted to be threatened in the future; B. tridactylus emerges as the species most vulnerable to climate change, but with no considerable forest losses, while B. torquatus shows the opposite pattern. Our study highlights the importance of incorporating multiple stressors in predictive models in general. To increase resilience of species to climate change, it is key to control deforestation in the Amazon for B. tridactylus, and to promote reforestation in the Atlantic Forest for B. torquatus.

Journal

Journal of Mammalogy – Oxford University Press

Published: Jun 2, 2022

Keywords: Bradypus; ecological niche models; ecophysiological models; forest cover; hybrid models; Xenarthra; Bradypus; cobertura florestal; modelos de nicho ecológico; modelos híbridos; modelos ecofisiológicos; Xenarthra

There are no references for this article.