Potential Impact of Climate Change on Distribution of Hedera rhombea in the Korean Peninsula

Abstract

We projected the distribution of Hedera rhombea, an evergreen broad-leaved climbing plant, under current climate conditions and predicted its future distributions under global warming. Inaddition, weexplained model uncertainty by employing 9 single Species Distribution model (SDM)s to model the distribution of Hedera rhombea. 9 single SDMs were constructed with 736 presence/absence data and 3 temperature and 3 precipitation data. Uncertainty of each SDM was assessed with TSS (Ture Skill Statistics) and AUC (the Area under the curve) value of ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analyses. To reduce model uncertainty, we combined 9 single SDMs weighted by TSS and resulted in an ensemble forecast, a TSS weighted ensemble. We predicted future distributions of Hedera rhombea under future climate conditions for the period of 2050 (2040∼2060), which were estimated with HadGEM2-AO. RF (Random Forest), GBM (Generalized Boosted Model) and TSS weighted ensemble model showed higher prediction accuracies (AUC 0.95, TSS 0.80) than other SDMs. Based on the projections of TSS weighted ensemble, potential habitats under current climate conditions showed a discrepancy with actual habitats, especially in the northern distribution limit. The observed northern boundary of Hedera rhombea is Ulsan in the eastern Korean Peninsula, but the projected limit was eastern coast of Gangwon province. Geomorphological conditions and the dispersal limitations mediated by birds, the lack of bird habitats at eastern coast of Gangwon Province, account for such discrepancy. In general, potential habitats of Hedera rhombea expanded under future climate conditions, but the extent of expansions depend on RCP scenarios. Potential Habitat of Hedera rhombea expanded into Jeolla-inland area under RCP 4.5, and into Chungnam and Wonsan under RCP 8.5. Our results would be fundamental information for understanding the potential effects of climate change on the distribution of Hedera rhombea.