We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Causal or spurious relationship? Climate and the distribution of Phelsuma geckos on Grand Comoro Island.
- Authors
Hawlitschek, Oliver; Brückmann, Boris; Glaw, Frank
- Abstract
The volcanic island of Grand Comoro, Malagasy biogeographic region, is inhabited by three species of Phelsuma day geckos; two island-endemic taxa ( Phelsuma comorensis and Phelsuma v-nigra comoraegrandensis) and the introduced Phelsuma dubia. Phelsuma comorensis is restricted to elevations of greater than 150 m above sea level on the northern of the island's two volcanoes and is the only Phelsuma above 300 m. The other species are widespread at low elevations but also reach levels above 900 m at the southern volcano. To investigate these divergent distribution patterns, we used environmental niche models based on climate and habitat data and tested whether predicted climate change may influence species distributions. Analyses of niche overlap did not show significant differences between present-day and predicted future potential distributions of any Phelsuma species studied, which could be seen as an indicator of resilience towards climate change. Climate models reflected the restricted distribution of P. comorensis with precipitation of the wettest month detected as most important variable, whereas habitat models predicted an island-wide distribution. While climate appears to determine the distribution of P. comorensis, we propose isolation by migration barriers as an alternative and discuss the detection of causal versus spurious relationships in ecological niche models.
- Subjects
PHELSUMA; GECKOS; VOLCANOES; CLIMATE change; ATMOSPHERIC models
- Publication
African Journal of Ecology, 2017, Vol 55, Issue 4, p500
- ISSN
0141-6707
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/aje.12380