Aim Small range size often increases a species’ susceptibility to decline. A narrow ecological niche is one factor that may cause species to inhabit a small range. We investigated whether specialized niches have made S outh A frican amphibians more vulnerable to range contractions. Location S outh A frica. Methods The S outh A frican F rog A tlas P roject is a comprehensive dataset that combines a recent biological survey with...

Aim To examine the impacts of climate change on endemic birds, which are of global significance for conservation, on a continent with few such assessments. We specifically assess projected range changes in relation to the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) network and assess the possible consequences for conservation. Location South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Methods The newly emerging ensemble modelling approach is used with 50...

The responsiveness of South African fauna to climate change events is poorly documented and not routinely incorporated into regional conservation planning. We model the likely range alterations of a representative suite of 179 animal species to climate change brought about by the doubling of CO 2 concentrations. This scenario is expected to cause a mean temperature increase of 2 °C. We applied a multivariate climate envelope a...