Predicting range shifts of Asian elephants under global change

• Published in: Diversity & distributions Vol. 25; no. 5; pp. 822 - 838
• Main Authors: Kanagaraj, Rajapandian, Araújo, Miguel B., Barman, Rathin, Davidar, Priya, De, Rahul, Digal, Dinesh K., Gopi, G. V., Johnsingh, A. J. T., Kakati, Kashmira, Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie, Lamichhane, Babu R., Lyngdoh, Salvador, Madhusudan, M. D., Najar, Muneer Ul Islam, Parida, Jyotirmayee, Pradhan, Narendra M. B., Puyravaud, Jean-Philippe, Raghunath, R., Rahim, P. P. Abdul, Selvan, K. Muthamizh, Subedi, Naresh, Trabucco, Antonio, Udayraj, Swati, Wiegand, Thorsten, Williams, Amirtharaj C., Goyal, Surendra P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Wiley 01-05-2019; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Animal populations; Asian elephant; Associated species; BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH; Climate; Climate change; Climate effects; Climate variability; Corridors; Current distribution; Dispersal; Drought; Elephants; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Habitat loss; Habitat selection; Habitats; Hydrologic cycle; Land use; Mathematical models; Mountains; range shift; seasonality; South Asia; Species; species distribution modelling; Water availability; Water balance; Water conservation; Nepal; India
• ISSN: 1366-9516; 1472-4642
• DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12898

Aim
Climate change alters the water cycle, potentially affecting the distribution of species. Using an ensemble of species distribution models (SDMs), we predicted changes in distribution of the Asian elephant in South Asia due to increasing climatic variability under warming climate and human pressures.
Location
India and Nepal.
Methods
We compiled a comprehensive geodatabase of 115 predictor variables, which included climatic, topographic, human pressures and land use, at a resolution of 1 km2, and an extensive database on current distribution of elephants. For variable selection, we first developed 14 candidate models based on different hypotheses on elephant habitat selection. For each candidate model, a series of 240 individual models were evaluated using several metrics. Using three climatic and one land use change datasets for two greenhouse gas scenarios, ensemble SDMs were used to predict future projections.
Results
Nine predictor variables were selected for ensemble SDMs. Elephant distribution is driven predominantly by changes in climatic water balance (>60%), followed by changes in temperature and human‐induced disturbance. The results suggest that around 41.8% of the 256,518 km2 of habitat available at present will be lost by the end of this century due to combined effects of climate change and human pressure. Projected habitat loss will be higher in human‐dominated sites at lower elevations due to intensifying droughts, leading elephants to seek refuge at higher elevations along valleys with greater water availability in the Himalayan Mountains.
Main conclusions
Changes in climatic water balance could play a crucial role in driving species distributions in regions with monsoonal climates. In response, species would shift their range upwards along gradients of water availability and seasonal droughts. Conservation and management of elephant populations under global change should include design of movement corridors to enable dispersal of the elephant and other associated species to more conducive environments.