Does size matter? An analysis of the niche width and vulnerability to climate change of fourteen species of the genus Crotalus from North America

The niche comprises the set of abiotic and biotic environmental conditions in which a species can live. Consequently, those species that present broader niches are expected to be more tolerant to changes in climatic variations than those species that present reduced niches. In this study, we estimat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2022-04, Vol.10, p.e13154, Article e13154
Main Authors: Becerra-López, Jorge Luis, Cruz-Elizalde, Raciel, Ramírez-Bautista, Aurelio, Magno-Benítez, Itzel, Ballesteros-Barrera, Claudia, Alvarado-Díaz, Javier, Bryson, Jr, Robert W, Hernández-Salinas, Uriel, Díaz-Marín, César A, Berriozabal-Islas, Christian, Fraire-Galindo, Karen, Tello-Ruiz, Juan, Czaja, Alexander, Torres-Delgado, María Guadalupe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animals
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Climate Change
Climate Change Biology
Conservation Biology
Crotalus
Ecology
Ecosystem
Environmental conditions
Environmental factors
Geography
Global temperature changes
Niche modelling
Niches
North America
Precipitation
Rattlesnakes
Snakes
Software
Species
Taxonomy
Temperature
Variables
Viperidae
Zoology
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Summary:The niche comprises the set of abiotic and biotic environmental conditions in which a species can live. Consequently, those species that present broader niches are expected to be more tolerant to changes in climatic variations than those species that present reduced niches. In this study, we estimate the amplitude of the climatic niche of fourteen species of rattlesnakes of the genus to evaluate whether those species that present broader niches are less susceptible to the loss of climatically suitable zones due to the projected climate change for the time period 2021-2040. Our results suggest that for the species under study, the breadth of the niche is not a factor that determines their vulnerability to climatic variations. However, 71.4% of the species will experience increasingly inadequate habitat conditions, mainly due to the increase in temperature and the contribution that this variable has in the creation of climatically suitable zones for most of these species.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.13154