WCS 3-Sentence Science

Mammals Feeling the Heat

April 28, 2019

Photo credit: Francesco Rovero

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present Timothy O’Brien and S. Andelman’s work on how species are responding to climate change:

1. Scientists used camera traps to monitor the distribution of different mammal species in tropical regions to see how they are affected by natural factors and human caused climate change.
2. Authors found that local colonization and extinction dynamics of tropical forest mammals are strongly associated with changes in local temperature, while results further suggest that local mammal‐community composition of differing species can additionally affect these dynamics.
3. Considering the influence of species interactions is essential in climate change projections as they are increasingly incorporated into tropical land management, vulnerability assessments, and conservation planning.

Study and Journal: “Local temperature and ecological similarity drive distributional dynamics of tropical mammals worldwide” from Global Ecology and Biogeography
WCS Co-Author(s): Timothy O’Brien, Senior Scientist, Conservation Solutions; S. Andelman, Conservation Strategy and Partnerships

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.