Reducing Wallacean shortfalls for the coralsnakes of the Micrurus lemniscatus species complex: Present and future distributions under a changing climate.

Autor: Terribile LC; Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Goiás, UFG, Regional Jataí, Brazil., Feitosa DT; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais e Saúde, Escola de Ciências Médicas, Farmacêuticas e Biomédicas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil., Pires MG; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais e Saúde, Escola de Ciências Médicas, Farmacêuticas e Biomédicas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil., de Almeida PCR; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biotecnologia e Biodiversidade-Rede Ampla, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil., de Oliveira G; Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Ambientais e Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia, Bahia, Brazil., Diniz-Filho JAF; Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, UFG, Brazil., Silva NJD Jr; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais e Saúde, Escola de Ciências Médicas, Farmacêuticas e Biomédicas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2018 Nov 14; Vol. 13 (11), pp. e0205164. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Nov 14 (Print Publication: 2018).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205164
Abstrakt: South American coralsnakes are characterized by inconspicuous and poorly known species, which are potentially very sensitive to climate change. Here, we assess the impact of future climate change on the distributions of the Micrurus lemniscatus species complex after addressing the Wallacean shortfalls and refining the knowledge about their current geographic distributions. We also evaluate the efficiency of the current reserve network to protect the species in the present and future. We applied ecological niche model tools through a carefully examined set of occurrence records to generate potential present distributions and to project these distributions into future scenarios of climate change. Specific thresholds based on occurrence records along with expert opinions were used to delineate the geographic distribution of each species. A hierarchical ANOVA was applied to evaluate the uncertainties in species distributions across niche modeling methods and climate models and nested into the time factor (present and future). Multiple regression models were used to infer the relative importance of the climatic variables to determine the species' suitability. A gap analysis was performed to address the representativeness of species distributions into protected areas. Predicted geographic distributions were compatible with the known distributions and the expert opinions, except for M. l. carvalhoi. New areas for field research were identified. Variation in precipitation was the most important factor defining the habitat suitability for all species, except for M. diutius. All taxa (except M. l. lemniscatus) will shrink their distributions in the future; less than 50% of the present suitable areas are protected in reserve networks, and less than 40% of these areas will be held in reserves in the future. We found strong evidence that coralsnakes may be highly sensitive to the ongoing changes and must be protected.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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