IADIZA   20886
INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE INVESTIGACIONES DE LAS ZONAS ARIDAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Influence of climate change on the predicted distributions of the genus Tympanoctomys (Rodentia, Hystricomorpha, Octodontidae), and their conservation implications
Autor/es:
OJEDA, RICARDO A; TARQUINO-CARBONELL, A P; OJEDA, AGUSTINA A
Revista:
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
Editorial:
ALLIANCE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP DIVISION ALLEN PRESS
Referencias:
Año: 2020 p. 1 - 16
ISSN:
0022-2372
Resumen:
Viscacha rats (genus Tympanoctomys Yepes, 1942) are ecologically, physiologically, and behaviorally unusualoctodontid rodents endemic to the Monte and Patagonian desert biomes of Argentina. The geographic ranges of thedifferent species of Tympanoctomys have been described in general terms but have not been associated with spatial andclimate data. Within species, populations are patchily distributed and genetically distinct. We investigated the predicteddistribution of Tympanoctomys and the influence of climate fluctuations on their geographic range in historical,current, and future, scenarios. Our objectives were to characterize the environmental niche of the genus, propose apaleoclimatic context for the oldest fossils, characterize the environmental niches for T. barrerae and T. kirchnerorum,and forecast potential future distributions for these taxa. Ecological niche models were constructed using occurrencerecords from 1941 to the present wherein we identified several precipitation and temperature variables as importantpredictors of the geographic distributions of the genus, and the species T. barrerae and T. kirchnerorum. Based onour models? results, we hypothesize that the distribution of Tympanoctomys has contracted from historical to moderntimes. At the species level, T. kirchnerorum likely experienced the most dramatic change, suffering a large contractionof its historical distribution resulting in its limited present distribution. Given these findings, projected future climatefluctuations and global warming are expected to affect the distributions and persistence of these species.