Species habitat suitability increased during COVID-19 lockdowns

Abstract

COVID-19 lockdowns had strong positive and negative effects on the environment and biodiversity. The most evident effects were the occurrence of wildlife in the middle of urban settlements, the reduction of noise, and the improvement in air quality. However, other effects on species are less well known. Our main question is: did species habitat suitability increase during lockdowns? Here, we analysed trends in species habitat suitability over time by modelling the species distributions with a time series of environmental variables obtained from satellite remote sensing. We modelled the habitat suitability of 381 species of vascular plants, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, before, during, and after the lockdowns in the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain), from July 2017 to August 2022 with the Maxent presence-background algorithm and five MODIS variables (Albedo, Evapotranspiration, LST, NDVI, and Surface reflectance) with a periodicity of 8 days, and analysed their trends with the Mann-Kendall test. We compared our results with air quality data (PM10, CO, and NO2) from ground stations and Sentinel 5 P and with mobility data from Google mobility reports. Habitat suitability increased during both lockdowns when considering all species together. The peak in species' habitat suitability trends during the first lockdown was coincident with air quality and mobility trends: air pollution decreased when people stayed at home. Reduction in human mobility during COVID-19 lockdowns revealed positive effects on species’ habitat quality, highlighting the importance of reducing human activities as the only solution for nature conservation.