Altitudinal heterogeneity and vulnerability assessment of protected area network for climate change adaptation planning in central Iran

Authors

Shima Malakoutikhah, Sima Fakheran, Mahmoud-Reza Hemami, Mostafa Tarkesh, Josef Senn

Publication date

2018/3/31

Journal

Applied Geography

Volume

92

Pages

94-103

Publisher

Pergamon

Description

One of the most serious challenges facing biodiversity conservation is associated with the 
efficiency of protected areas for conserving biodiversity under future climate change. To 
address it, conservationists recommend shifting conservation planning from just focusing on 
protecting animal populations and their present habitat to including areas of high habitat 
heterogeneity. It is now well documented that range shifts of many species are occurring 
along altitudinal gradients. Thus, species in reserves extending over larger altitudinal 
gradients would have more opportunities for shifting their range toward higher altitudes. In 
this study, we evaluated the network of protected areas (PAs) in central Iran for their 
altitudinal heterogeneity. We then used a comparison index to quantify representativeness 
level of each altitudinal zone within the PAs. To detect if altitudinal heterogeneity may …