Historical and projected future range sizes of the world's mammals, birds, and amphibians.

ABSTRACT: Species' vulnerability to extinction is strongly impacted by their geographical range size. Formulating effective conservation strategies therefore requires a better understanding of how the ranges of the world's species have changed in the past, and how they will change under alternative future scenarios. Here, we use reconstructions of global land use and biomes since 1700, and 16 possible climatic and socio-economic scenarios until the year 2100, to map the habitat ranges of 16,919 mammal, bird, and amphibian species through time. We estimate that species have lost an average of 18% of their natural habitat range sizes thus far, and may lose up to 23% by 2100. Our data reveal that range losses have been increasing disproportionately in relation to the area of destroyed habitat, driven b

SUBMITTER: Beyer RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7648644 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature