Climate change induced habitat expansion of nutria (Myocastor coypus) in South Korea

Abstract

The nutria, (Myocastor coypus), is a semiaquatic rodent native to the subtropical and temperate regions of South America. The species was introduced to South Korea for meat and fur production purposes and a wild population has become established. The species subsequently invaded aquatic ecosystems and destroyed aquatic vegetation and cultivated crops. Thus, it is essential to understand their current distribution and future range expansion for effective control and eradication strategies to reduce the risk of colonization into new regions. In this study, we used niche modeling procedure to identify potentially suitable habitats for M. coypus under current and future predicted climate change using the maximum entropy algorithm. We found that the main habitat area of M. coypus is expected to expand under a warming climate from ~ 4069 km2 in the southern and southeastern regions of South Korea, to the northern border of the country, with estimated ranges of 21,744 km2, 55,859 km2, and 64,937 km2 by 2030, 2050, and 2070, respectively. The findings of the present study assist in identifying the future distribution and potential dispersion routes of M. coypus in South Korea, which is important for informing the government regarding essential management actions plans at regional and local scales.

Distribution of sika deer (Cervus nippon) and the bioclimatic impact on their habitats in South Korea

“…Several studies have reported that invasive species are the ‘winners’ in climate change scenarios, as they can establish populations and reproduce in climatic conditions and environments that differ from those in their native distribution range 54 , 55 . Researchers in diverse fields have collaborated to develop a framework that improves our understanding of invasive species and helps us evaluate, quantify, and predict their effects on native ecosystems 56 .…”

Climate change-induced invasion risk of ecosystem disturbing alien plant species: An evaluation using species distribution modeling

“…Evaluation of model performance and validation using area under the curve, true skill statistics, and Kappa values Three measures, namely, the AUC values of the ROC curves (Pearson, 2010), the TSS (Allouche et al, 2006), and the Kappa statistic (McHugh, 2012), were used to evaluate and validate model performance. The process of model calibration and validation were performed as described in Adhikari et al (2021Adhikari et al ( , 2022. In this study, computing AUC, TSS, and Kappa did not only compare the predictive performances of the models, but also selected the best model using corresponding scores for 12 EDAPS.…”

Risk assessment for the native anurans from an alien invasive species, American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus), in South Korea

“…After being released, the physio-morphological characteristics, like big sized body, a huge number of eggs per clutch, food habits, etc., facilitate this species to invade new areas and outcompete the native species with negative impacts 22 – 24 . Together with other factors, e.g., climate change 25 , 26 , Korean fauna are experiencing immense stress from these kinds of invasive species. For instance, Pelophylax nigromaculatus and P. chosenicus are reported to be directly impacted by IAB 27 , 28 , while Dryophytes suweonensis indirectly 5 .…”