The researchers: "Amphibians and reptiles that live in nature reserves around the world will be more protected from climate change, but are still likely to be damaged."
A new international study states that amphibians and reptiles that live in the world's nature reserves will be more protected from climate change than species found outside the reserves - but are still likely to be harmed. The research findings provide evidence on a global scale of the crucial role nature reserves play in conserving amphibian and reptile biodiversity under human-induced climate change scenarios. The research reveals that more animals will become extinct, as a result of climate change, outside the reserves than inside - in the world in general and on most continents. The research was conducted with the participation of Prof. Shay Meiri from the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Nature Museum at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with leading researchers from 19 countries, and published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
Nature reserves as a refuge
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing nature reserves in protecting the amphibians and reptiles therein under future climate scenarios, as well as to identify conservation gaps in order to outline a road map for the development of conservation actions based on the current network of nature reserves on a global scale.
Prof. Meiri: "In this study, we collected distribution data for more than 14,000 species of amphibians and reptiles - about 70% of the known species, to perform a global assessment of the conservation effectiveness of nature reserves in an era of climate change using species distribution models. Our analyzes reveal that approximately 91% of the amphibian and reptile species we examined are protected to one degree or another in reserves, and that this proportion will remain No change due to future climate changes. Also, species protected in nature reserves will lose a smaller part of their distribution ranges than outside them. Therefore, the proportion of protected species is expected to increase."
However, Prof. Meiri points out, "We predict that more than 300 of the amphibian species and 500 of the reptile species we studied will become extinct due to climate change in the coming decades, and probably also hundreds of species for which we did not have sufficient data to create models. Our research highlights the importance of nature reserves in providing refuge for amphibians and reptiles despite climate change, and points to areas where there are no nature reserves that can to better preserve biodiversity around the world."
He adds: "We compiled a comprehensive global database with more than 3.5 million sighting records for 5,403 amphibian species and 8,993 reptile species from thousands of databases, fieldwork data, museum collections and scientific studies. For all species in our database, we predicted the Availability of habitats according to current climate data (1960-1990) and future scenarios (for the years 2060–2080) with a high spatial resolution (1 km × 1 km) using species distribution models. Then, we evaluated the effectiveness of nature reserves for the conservation of amphibians and reptiles by calculating their distribution range coverage inside and outside nature reserves. , and the proportion of species that a significant part of their distribution range (for example 15% or 30% of the range) is protected in nature reserves today And in the future (assuming that the future use of the land remains unchanged over the years - that is, there will be no conversion of natural areas into agricultural, industrial, urban areas, etc.)."
Prof. Meiri concludes: "Our evidence shows that the current global network of nature reserves already plays an important role in conserving the global biodiversity of amphibians and reptiles, and will continue to do so under an expected future climate. However, many species do not live in the existing reserves. These include bi -Many animals and reptiles common in Mexico, Jamaica, the Andes, West Africa, South Africa, the southern and northern coasts of Turkey, Yemen and other places. Also, in our study we were able to create a model for only about two thirds of the reptile and amphibian species - for the rarest species it is not possible to create good models, and it is known that they are more vulnerable to extinction and less protected in nature reserves. At the same time, it is important to remember that despite the relative optimism From the new study, the models still predict extremely high rates of loss of species and habitats due to climate change The animals that are in their domain, but never resilience."
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