Abstract

Knowledge about species’ distributions is central to diverse applications in ecology, biogeography, and conservation science. Hot-spring snakes of the genus Thermophis share a distribution restricted to geothermal sites at the Tibetan Plateau (T. baileyi) and in the Hengduan Mountains (T. zhaoermii, T. shangrila). Although the suture zones of these regions are widely covered with hot springs, Thermophis populations are restricted to only a few of these habitats. Here, we use bioclimatic, topographic, and land cover data to model the potential distribution of the genus. Moreover, using logistic regression on field survey data of T. zhaoermii, we test whether hot-spring water parameters and landscape features correlate with the species’ presence or absence. Hot springs with temperatures between 45 and 100 °C and winter precipitation showed the most predictive power. At small scale, our data support the relevance of the hot-spring temperature on the species’ occurrence and indicate that also the along-valley distance from the hot-spring site to the major river might influence the distribution of Thermophis species. Our findings contribute to better understand factors shaping the current distribution of the genus and will aid in setting priorities in applied conservation biology for the hot-spring snakes.

Highlights

  • Introduction iationsUnderstanding the factors underlying the distribution patterns of species is one of the major tasks of ecology and biogeography [1,2]

  • Mountains comprise more than 500,000 km2 of temperate and alpine ecosystems that run along a north–south orientation at the eastern margin of the Himalayan range, in the southeastern corner of the Tibetan Plateau

  • Northern areas of Tibet and Sichuan, central and southern Yunnan, and the Sichuan Basin are climatically different from those areas where Thermophis has been recorded

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Summary

Introduction

Understanding the factors underlying the distribution patterns of species is one of the major tasks of ecology and biogeography [1,2]. It is, of prime concern for biodiversity conservation. The Tibetan Plateau and the Hengduan Mountains pose as unique biogeographic zones since they are among the world’s ecologically most diverse areas [3,4]. Its southeastern quarter is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots characterized by high levels of species richness and endemism [5]. The Tibetan Plateau supports high species diversity. With an area of 2.5 million km and an average elevation of 4500 m above sea level (a.s.l.), the highlands

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