To understand future habitat needs for chimpanzees, look to the past
New study examines where chimpanzees found refuge from climate
instability during the past 120,000 years

Date:
August 23, 2021
Source:
Wildlife Conservation Society
Summary:
A new study provides insight into where chimpanzees (Pan
troglodytes) avoided climate instability during glacial and
interglacial periods in Africa over the past 120,000 years.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study provides insight into where chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
avoided climate instability during glacial and interglacial periods
in Africa over the past 120,000 years. Using bioclimatic variables and
other data, the study identified previously unknown swaths of habitat,
rich in figs and palms, where chimps rode out the changes seen since
the Last Interglacial period.


==========================================================================
The findings, published in the journal in the American Journal of
Primatology, help to increase the understanding of how climate change
impacts biodiversity, and how to mitigate against predicted biodiversity
loss in the future. This research was led by the German Centre for
Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Max Planck Institute
for Evolutionary Anthropology, and an international team of over 80 collaborators from research institutes across the globe.

For their analysis, the authors compiled over 130,000 occurrence records
of chimpanzees stored in the A.P.E.S. database of the International Union
for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC),
as well as data from the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee
(PanAf) at the MPI-EVA and iDiv, Leipzig.The researchers quantified
chimpanzee habitat suitability using species distribution models based
on chimpanzee occurrences, climate and human density data, and then
projected these models onto temporal snapshots of climate reconstructions
at up to 1000 year intervals, dating back to the Last Interglacial period (120,000 years ago). For the first time, they were able to build a dynamic model of habitat suitability over time, permitting long-term stability
(i.e. glacial refugia) to be calculated.

Results show that glacial refugia across Africa may have been
underestimated for chimpanzees, with potentially up to 60,000 additional
square kilometers (23,166 square miles) in the Upper and Lower Guinea
Forests in West and Central Africa, and the Albertine Rift in East Africa.

In addition, results provide explicit insights into chimpanzee habitat
and how it may have shifted throughout time, enabling hypotheses of how
global change has affected genetic and behavioral diversity to be tested
in the future.

Said lead author of the study Chris Barratt, a postdoctoral researcher at
iDiv: "By integrating past climate and human density estimates, as well
as species richness of keystone tropical plants (figs and palms), this
study provides strong evidence of glacial refugia for chimpanzees being geographically larger than previously thought. It may well be that some
of these refugia deserve greater levels of protection than they currently receive as they are important for the persistence of populations and
species during periods of global change." The results provide a new
resource for understanding patterns of genetic and behavioral diversity
in chimpanzees. Chimpanzees exhibit highly differentiated genetic
diversity (for example, lower in West Africa and higher in East and
Central Africa), as well as high levels of behavioral differentiation
based on the environmental variability they are exposed to, including Pleistocene forest refugia.

Said Hjalmar Ku"hl at iDiv, and senior author of the study: "We are only beginning to understand how past environmental changes have influenced
the diversity in great apes we find today. A better understanding
of these processes will tell us when variable environments serve as
engines of diversification and when not. In the end these insights
into great apes will also offer insights into our own evolution."
Said Fiona Maisels of the Wildlife Conservation Society and a
co-author of the study: "To effectively conserve chimpanzees (and other species) over the centuries to come, it is essential to understand the
past. Humans are changing the planet's climate and its habitats ever
more rapidly. Approaches such as those used in this study are vital for predicting how these changes will affect future wildlife abundance and distribution, and to ensure space and safety for a multitude of species." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Wildlife_Conservation_Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Christopher D. Barratt, Jack D. Lester, Paolo Gratton, Renske
E. Onstein,
Ammie K. Kalan, Maureen S. McCarthy, Gae"lle Bocksberger, Lauren C.

White, Linda Vigilant, Paula Dieguez, Barrie Abdulai, Thierry
Aebischer, Anthony Agbor, Alfred K. Assumang, Emma Bailey,
Mattia Bessone, Bartelijntje Buys, Joana S. Carvalho, Rebecca
Chancellor, Heather Cohen, Emmanuel Danquah, Tobias Deschner,
Zacharie N. Dongmo, Osiris A. Doumbe', Jef Dupain, Chris S. Duvall,
Manasseh Eno‐Nku, Gilles Etoga, Anh Galat‐Luong, Rosa
Garriga, Sylvain Gatti, Andrea Ghiurghi, Annemarie Goedmakers,
Anne‐Ce'line Granjon, Dismas Hakizimana, Josephine Head,
Daniela Hedwig, Ilka Herbinger, Veerle Hermans, Sorrel Jones,
Jessica Junker, Parag Kadam, Mohamed Kambi, Ivonne Kienast,
Ce'lestin Y. Kouakou, Kouame' P. N'Goran, Kevin E. Langergraber,
Juan Lapuente, Anne Laudisoit, Kevin C. Lee, Fiona Maisels,
Nadia Mirghani, Deborah Moore, Bethan Morgan, David Morgan, Emily
Neil, Sonia Nicholl, Louis Nkembi, Anne Ntongho, Christopher
Orbell, Lucy Jayne Ormsby, Liliana Pacheco, Alex K. Piel,
Lilian Pintea, Andrew J. Plumptre, Aaron Rundus, Crickette Sanz,
Volker Sommer, Tenekwetche Sop, Fiona A. Stewart, Jacqueline
Sunderland‐Groves, Nikki Tagg, Angelique Todd, Els Ton, Joost
Schijndel, Hilde VanLeeuwe, Elleni Vendras, Adam Welsh, Jose' F. C.

Wenceslau, Erin G. Wessling, Jacob Willie, Roman M. Wittig,
Nakashima Yoshihiro, Yisa Ginath Yuh, Kyle Yurkiw, Christophe
Boesch, Mimi Arandjelovic, Hjalmar Ku"hl. Quantitative estimates
of glacial refugia for chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) since the
Last Interglacial (120,000 BP). American Journal of Primatology,
2021; DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23320 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210823143623.htm

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