Background
The current biodiversity extinction crisis is one of the major challenges that humanity faces, and is particularly exacerbated by climate change.
Although species try to mitigate the effects of climate change by migrating to less impacted areas, this often results in a reduction in range size (through habitat loss and fragmentation) and habitat quality.
The desert biodiversity is expected to experience the impacts of climate change faster and stronger, especially for the Sahara desert. Despite that, the Sahara receives particularly little scientific attention and conservation aid.
As such, the Saharan biodiversity is larger unknown, unprotected and especially vulnerable to climate change.
Aims
My thesis aimed to contribute to Saharan conservation planning by:
1. Quantifying the expected range loss of Saharan species under future climate-change scenarios
2. Compare the vulnerability to climate change of different Saharan species subgroups (according to class, IUCN threat status, and flagship status)
3. Determine the accuracy of flagship species as representative of the overall Saharan biodiversity
4. Identify areas of high extinction risks and refugia