Modeling of the current distribution and under climate change of endemic pinyon pines of Mexico

Abstract

At present, some endemic pines of Mexico are at risk due to several factors, either anthropogenic or related to climatic alterations. In this work the current potential distribution and under climate change scenarios was modeled for four species of pinyon pines. For this purpose, bioclimatic coverages and data on the presence of four pine-tree species were used as predictive variables. Results suggest a good prediction of geographic distribution patterns (AUC> 0.9 in all cases). The high potential distribution with the GFDL-CM3 model for the 2049-2065 horizon PCR 4.5 scenarios had species-specific modifications on its surface. The most sensitive species were P. culminicola, P. johannis and P. pinceana which showed reductions of 83.6, 59.5 and 80.0 %, respectively, compared to the current surface. In scenario RCP 8.5, the reductions of these species were 83.7, 56.9 and 79.3 %, for each one. The distribution models of P. nelsonii showed for both climate scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5), increases in the high potential extension with respect to the current one up to 50.8 % and 49.5 % respectively. Climate change scenarios show that pines will be affected in their distribution in the near future due to changes in precipitation and temperature patterns.