title: Patterns and biases in climate change research on amphibians and reptiles: a systematic review.
abstract: Climate change probably has severe impacts on animal populations, but demonstrating a causal link can be difficult because of potential influences by additional factors. Assessing global impacts of climate change effects may also be hampered by narrow taxonomic and geographical research foci. We review studies on the effects of climate change on populations of amphibians and reptiles to assess climate change effects and potential biases associated with the body of work that has been conducted within the last decade. We use data from 104 studies regarding the effect of climate on 313 species, from 464 species-study combinations. Climate change effects were reported in 65% of studies. Climate change was identified as causing population declines or range restrictions in half of the cases. The probability of identifying an effect of climate change varied among regions, taxa and research methods. Climatic effects were equally prevalent in studies exclusively investigating climate factors (more than 50% of studies) and in studies including additional factors, thus bolstering confidence in the results of studies exclusively examining effects of climate change. Our analyses reveal biases with respect to geography, taxonomy and research question, making global conclusions impossible. Additional research should focus on under-represented regions, taxa and questions. Conservation and climate policy should consider the documented harm climate change causes reptiles and amphibians.
authors.affiliation: WissenLeben e.V. , Raisting , Germany.
authors.forename: Maiken
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4411-5451
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany; University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1082-4161
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fiedler
authors.affiliation: Lab of Ornithology , Cornell University , Ithaca, NY , USA.
authors.forename: Wesley M
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0595-7827
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Hochachka
authors.affiliation: WWF Germany , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Arnulf
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4104-0477
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koehncke
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences , Tel Aviv University , Tel Aviv , Israel.
authors.forename: Shai
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3839-6330
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meiri
authors.affiliation: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5064-4507
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De la Riva
keywords: Linnean shortfall; Wallacean shortfall; amphibia; bias; climate change; reptilia