Assessing the Spatial Distribution of Biodiversity in a Changing Temperature Pattern: The Case of Catalonia, Spain

Diego Varga, Mariona Roigé, Josep Pintó and Marc Saez
Additional contact information
Diego Varga: Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics and Health (GRECS), University of Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain
Mariona Roigé: Bio-protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln P.O. Box 85084, New Zealand
Josep Pintó: Landscape Analysis and Management Laboratory, University of Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain
Marc Saez: Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics and Health (GRECS), University of Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-13

Abstract: The impacts that climate change and land-use dynamics have on biodiversity are already visible in the distribution and behaviour of a large number of species. By using a Bayesian framework, including land-use, meteorological, topography and other variables as explanatory variables, such as distance to roads and urban centres, we modeled a number of species within each cell of a regular lattice for Catalonia, Spain, in the period of 2004 to 2010. We estimated a slight increase in daily maximum temperature and a more significant increase in minimum temperature (a 5-year increase of 0.159 °C in maximum temperature, and an increase of 0.332 °C in minimum temperature). The estimation shows that the total number of species was greater than expected in the cells where land use was not urban—38.4%, in forests and 55.2% in mixed forests. Finally, we observed that most invasive species are found in areas where the minimum temperature is expected to increase. Our study can help with making important recommendations as to where, when and how future threats could affect specie distribution and the kind of planning processes needed for when protected natural areas will be unable to continue to support all the species they were designed to protect.

Keywords: biodiversity; catalonia; climate change; geographic range; land use; temperature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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