Abstract

JIMENEZ ZACUR, Marcela N.; PEREZ-ESTIGARRIBIA, Pastor Enmanuel  and  ESQUIVEL MATTOS, Alberto. Extinction risk related to the climatic niche: what do we know and what do we have to find out?. Rep. cient. FACEN [online]. 2023, vol.14, n.2, pp.114-147. ISSN 2222-145X.  https://doi.org/10.18004/rcfacen.2023.14.2.114.

Species could lose part of their niche representation in the biotope due to climate change, potentially affecting extinction risk. This brief review of the literature aims to establish the basic aspects of our current knowledge concerning extinction risk related to climatic niches. This will enable the formulation of future approaches such as predictions of extinction risk based on the climatic niche. The literature indicates that niche width and relative position of niche components determine extinction risk. This information could complement our knowledge of extinction risk based on geographic distributions. It could also be used to plan specific conservation strategies for each situation. Climatic niche characteristics may interact with external factors (threats and competition) and intrinsic factors (occupied area and dispersal), affecting extinction risk. Information gaps about climatic niches persist as well as limitations of their study methods. Most studies have focused on paleartic vertebrates and realized niches. Finally, a case study is presented in which differences among bird realized climatic niches according to their extinction risk are illustrated by comparing descriptive statistics. These partially confirm what is mentioned in the literature but should be improved to guarantee that they provide accurate information. In the future, it would be interesting to explore these descriptive statistics as climatic predictors of conservation status for data deficient species and to gain a better understanding of extinction risk by adding the climatic dimension to risk evaluations.

Keywords : climate change; ecological niche; conservation biology; niche width.

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