Version 1
: Received: 19 October 2022 / Approved: 21 October 2022 / Online: 21 October 2022 (03:11:42 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 10 November 2022 / Approved: 11 November 2022 / Online: 11 November 2022 (02:33:32 CET)
How to cite:
Altaba, C.R. Extinction through Climate Change: Review of Evidence and Analysis of Two Land Snails from the Seychelles Islands. Preprints2022, 2022100315. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0315.v2
Altaba, C.R. Extinction through Climate Change: Review of Evidence and Analysis of Two Land Snails from the Seychelles Islands. Preprints 2022, 2022100315. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0315.v2
Altaba, C.R. Extinction through Climate Change: Review of Evidence and Analysis of Two Land Snails from the Seychelles Islands. Preprints2022, 2022100315. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0315.v2
APA Style
Altaba, C.R. (2022). Extinction through Climate Change: Review of Evidence and Analysis of Two Land Snails from the Seychelles Islands. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0315.v2
Chicago/Turabian Style
Altaba, C.R. 2022 "Extinction through Climate Change: Review of Evidence and Analysis of Two Land Snails from the Seychelles Islands" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0315.v2
Abstract
Several extinctions have already been attributed, at least in part, to global warming, as climate change constitutes a serious threat for species living in isolated ecosystems and thus unable to track habitat changes. However, in all these cases extinction was due to human impacts, often directly but generally also through exotic invasive species. For two arboreal land snails in Indian Ocean islands a link has been proposed with decreasing rainfall. The decline (but probably not extinction) of Pachnodus velutinus, a specialist of moist forests on the summits of northwestern Mahé, was most likely caused instead by invasive plants altering its habitat and alien predators decimating the population in the small remaining moist forests. An alternative explanation assuming genetic swamping through hybridization with a species from lower elevations has no basis, as the presumed hybrid constitutes a distinct species able to survive in the altered, dryer habitat. On Aldabra Atoll, the endemic Rhachistia aldabrae was claimed to have been the first extinction due to climate change, but is still extant. No relationship can be detected between number of sightings and annual rainfall, although a weighted measure that takes into account rainfall in previous years suggests a limited impact of weather. Analysis of the sighting record in various ways yields a probability of survival over time that never dropped below 0.3. The decline was caused instead by intense impacts of exotic invasive species. Alternative shortcuts to evaluate extinction rates among poorly known species are shown to be unreliable. Although no contemporary extinction can still be attributed to climate change, indirect and synergistic impacts on biodiversity are expected, especially through promoting biological invasions.
Keywords
climate change; exotic invasive species; extinction; islands; land snails; Seychelles; sighting record
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Commenter: Cristian R. Altaba
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author