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Realized climatic niches are conserved along maximum temperatures among herpetofaunal invaders
Author(s) -
Liu Xuan,
Petitpierre Blaise,
Broennimann Olivier,
Li Xianping,
Guisan Antoine,
Li Yiming
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of biogeography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1365-2699
pISSN - 0305-0270
DOI - 10.1111/jbi.12808
Subject(s) - niche , ecological niche , ecology , range (aeronautics) , macroecology , niche segregation , climate change , biology , environmental niche modelling , biogeography , habitat , materials science , composite material
Aim The conservatism of the realized climatic niche is a pivotal assumption for predicting invasion risk under present and future climates. To date, however, no studies have identified the particular dimensions of realized climatic niches that are spatially and temporally conserved for a whole taxonomic group on a global scale. Understanding realized niche dynamics along each individual climatic variable separately is a key consideration for improving forecasts of invasive species distributions and anticipating future range expansions. Location Global. Methods Using 181 successful invasion events for 128 alien herpetofaunal species across the globe, we applied a robust niche dynamics framework and analysed the conservatism of the realized climatic niche and its influencing factors along 19 temperature and precipitation variables. Results We found that the magnitude of the niche expansion along the maximum temperature of the warmest month (or warmest quarter) was, on average, the lowest compared with the niche expansion magnitude along the minimum, average, range and seasonal temperature characteristics and all precipitation variables. Furthermore, the niche shift along the maximum temperature was only negatively correlated with native range size and was unrelated to residence time, species traits, introduction propagule pressure, topographic heterogeneity or equatorwards and polewards range expansion. Main conclusions We provide the first evidence that the realized climatic niche of alien herpetofaunal species is generally most conserved along maximum temperatures. This finding highlights the importance of preferentially choosing conserved climatic niche parameters to develop robust predictions of biological invasions or shifts in species ranges in response to climate change.