Northward Shifts of the Distributions of Spanish Reptiles in Association with Climate Change

Abstract

It is predicted that climate change will drive extinctions of some reptiles and that the number of these extinctions will depend on whether reptiles are able to change their distribution. Whether the latitudinal distribution of reptiles may change in response to increases in temperature is unknown. We used data on reptile distributions collected during the 20th century to analyze whether changes in the distributions of reptiles in Spain are associated with increases in temperature. We controlled for biases in sampling effort and found a mean, statistically significant, northward shift of the northern extent of reptile distributions of about 15.2 km from 1940-1975 to 1991-2005. The southern extent of the distributions did not change significantly. Thus, our results suggest that the latitudinal distributions of reptiles may be changing in response to climate change.

Detecting and Attributing the Effects of Climate Change on the Distributions of Snake Species Over the Past 50 Years

“…1; Table 1). These results agree with those of other studies (Moreno-Rueda et al 2011). Changes in other directions were also detected in our study, and agree with an increasing number of reports have documented other types of range shifts, such as east-west shifts across longitudes or even shifts toward tropical latitudes and lower elevations (Lenoir and Svenning 2015).…”

“…Some studies have found that the effects of previous temperature changes on the distribution of the reptiles are crucial (Moreno-Rueda et al 2011). In our study, shifts in the northern boundaries and distribution center coordinates for the majority of snake species mimicked the trends in C-J and C-W stand for the center longitude and latitude, respectively; S, N, W, and E stand for the southern boundary, northern boundary, western boundary, and eastern boundary, respectively temperature changes, whereas changes in the southern, western, or eastern boundaries of several species also shifted with increases in temperature-based factors.…”

“…The accuracy of the prediction, however, will depend on crucial climatic factors that influence the changes in distribution of snake species and on the relationships between the changes in species distribution and climate change over the past years. Although a few studies have detected changes in the distribution of snakes and attributed these changes over the past few years (Araújo et al 2006;Reading et al 2010;Moreno-Rueda et al 2011), they suggested that the relationships between these changes and climate change have been variable. For example, Moreno-Rueda et al (2011) found that the latitudinal distributions of reptiles in Spain may be changing in response to climate change, whereas Hickling et al (2006) found that the distribution limits of two reptiles in the UK were not changing as the temperature increased.…”

“…Although a few studies have detected changes in the distribution of snakes and attributed these changes over the past few years (Araújo et al 2006;Reading et al 2010;Moreno-Rueda et al 2011), they suggested that the relationships between these changes and climate change have been variable. For example, Moreno-Rueda et al (2011) found that the latitudinal distributions of reptiles in Spain may be changing in response to climate change, whereas Hickling et al (2006) found that the distribution limits of two reptiles in the UK were not changing as the temperature increased. Additionally, the decline of snake species over 35 years at La Selva, Costa Rica, was not shown to be related to climate change (Whitfield et al 2007).…”

Expansion of Protected Areas under Climate Change: An Example of Mountainous Tree Species in Taiwan

“…SDMs are essential tools for both predicting the impacts of climatic change on biodiversity, and designing conservation plans and policies which best mitigate the effects of climate change [26]. Recent notable examples are by [19,20,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. However, it is recognized that there are significant limitations in projecting future species distribution using SDMs [34,35].…”