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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Disproportional risk for habitat loss of high-altitude endemic species under climate change
Global Change Biology, Volume 17, No. 2, Year 2011
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Description
The expected upward shift of trees due to climate warming is supposed to be a major threat to range-restricted high-altitude species by shrinking the area of their suitable habitats. Our projections show that areas of endemism of five taxonomic groups (vascular plants, snails, spiders, butterflies, and beetles) in the Austrian Alps will, on average, experience a 77% habitat loss even under the weakest climate change scenario (+1.8°C by 2100). The amount of habitat loss is positively related with the pooled endemic species richness (species from all five taxonomic groups) and with the richness of endemic vascular plants, snails, and beetles. Owing to limited postglacial migration, hotspots of high-altitude endemics are situated in rather low peripheral mountain chains of the Alps, which have not been glaciated during the Pleistocene. There, tree line expansion disproportionally reduces habitats of high-altitude species. Such legacies of climate history, which may aggravate extinction risks under future climate change have to be expected for many temperate mountain ranges. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Authors & Co-Authors
Dirnböck, Thomas
Austria, Vienna
Environment Agency Austria
Essl, Franz
Austria, Vienna
Environment Agency Austria
Rabitsch, Wolfgang Bernhard
Austria, Vienna
Environment Agency Austria
Statistics
Citations: 433
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 1
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02266.x
ISSN:
13652486
Research Areas
Environmental