Breeding range shift of the red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) under climate change

Abstract

The red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) is an endangered species listed by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) HARRIS J (2013). The largest population of this species is distributed mainly in China and Russia, which is called continental population SU L (2012)-Curt D (1996). This population is migratory, which migrates from its breeding range located in Northeast China and Southern Russia, to the wintering range in the south of China to spend the winter every year. The breeding range of this species is critical for redcrowned crane to survive and maintain its population. Previous studies showed the negative effects of habitat loss and degradation on the breeding area of red-crowned crane Ma Z (1998), Claire M (2019). Climate change may also threat the survival of this endangered species. Previous studies investigated the impacts of climate change on the breeding range or wintering range in China Wu (2012), [1]. However, no study was conducted to assess the potential impacts of climate change on the whole breeding range of this species. Here, we used bioclimatic niche modeling to predict the potential breeding range of red-crowned crane under current climate conditions and project onto future climate change scenarios. Our results show that the breeding range of the continental population of red-crowned crane will shift northward over this century and lose almost all of its current actual breeding range. The climate change will also change the country owning the largest portion of breeding range from China to Russia, suggesting that Russia should take more responsibility to preserve this endangered species in the future. OPEN ACCESS Citation: Liu L, Liao J, Wu Y, Zhang Y (2020) Breeding range shift of the red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) under climate change. PLoS ONE 15(3): e0229984. https://doi.org/10.

Modeling the Wintering Habitat Distribution of the Black Stork in Shaanxi, China: A Hierarchical Integration of Climate and Land Use/Land Cover Data

“…There were significant differences observed between the SDMs developed at national and provincial scales. For example, provincial SDMs may accurately represent local ecological conditions for the black stork but may not fully capture the species' complete climatic niche [7,48]. Consequently, models fitted with data from a partial section of a species' environmental niche can produce truncated response curves [49], leading to biased simulation results of distribution [48].…”

“…In addition to climate change, changes in land use and land cover (LULC) and the resulting habitat fragmentation can significantly affect biological processes and reduce the quantity and quality of habitats [2]. Studies have employed climate-driven simulations at various scales, research regions, and species to estimate the possible effects of climate change on species distribution [1,[7][8][9]. Furthermore, other studies have explicitly addressed climate-LULC interactions [10][11][12].…”