Climate change will have limited impact on future habitat suitability for two closely related East African nocturnal primates

Le résumé fourni par la source

Anthropogenic climate change poses an ongoing major threat to Earth's biodiversity and is predicted to accelerate species extinctions. Primates in particular are considered highly vulnerable to changing temperature, precipitation, and seasonality characteristics. The Kenya coast dwarf galago (Paragalago cocos) and the Zanzibar dwarf galago (P. zanzibaricus) are two closely related nocturnal primates that are endemic to coastal lowland and submontane humid forest environments of eastern Kenya and Tanzania. This region of East Africa is predicted to become hotter under future climate change trajectories, and other similarly distributed species in the Paragalago genus are predicted to either lose considerable habitat or become significantly more exposed to weather extremes. In this study, we modeled how future climate change will impact climatic habitat suitability and potential distributions across the ranges of P. cocos and P. zanzibaricus under different models of atmospheric circulation and emissions pathways. We also assessed the degree of suitable habitat extents within protected areas and anthropogenic modification characteristics under climate change trajectories. Overall, climate change is predicted to have a negligible impact on future suitability. Protected areas will encompass a limited degree of suitable habitat under current and future climatic conditions. Most of the climatically suitable habitat predicted for both species occurs in heavily modified landscapes with little intact high canopy forest, and future climate change will not lead to any major changes in the composition of modified habitat in either species' ranges. Future studies should examine more localized abundance and habitat use patterns for both species, particularly in more modified habitats.

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