Tropical dry woodland loss in India since 1880 and its relation to current megafauna distributions.

ABSTRACT: Tropical dry woodlands provide ecosystem services to hundreds of millions of people and support high biodiversity. Despite their importance, many dry woodlands are under high and rising human pressure, including in India, where they provide essential habitat for iconic megafauna. However, there are notable gaps in our understanding of long-term changes in dry woodlands and how they relate to the present-day distribution of megafauna. Here, we reconstructed tropical dry woodland change since the 19th century, identified archetypes of change, and explored their relationship with current megafauna distributions. More specifically, we compared the reliability of existing satellite-based woodland maps and integrated them into an ensemble map of contemporary dry woodland cover in India. This all

SUBMITTER: Kalam T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12230645 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature