Potential impacts to dry forest species distribution under two climate change scenarios in southern Ecuador

Tropical dry forest is an important ecosystem that offers different good and services to communities. However, despite their importance, these ecosystems are the least studied and have been impacted by human activity in the last decades. Moreover, future projections show an additional impact caused by climate change. For this reason, the understanding of anthropogenic and climate change impacts will help to improve adaptation strategies for a better species conservation. Consequently, we analyzed the impact of climate change and stressors on species distribution from dry forest ecosystem in southern Ecuador. We identified the variables that could help to buffer the potential impacts. Indicator species of climate change impacts were chosen using a species selection index considering an importance index value, density, rarity and altitudinal range. The selected species were Cavanillesia platanifolia, Cordia macrantha (C. macrantha), Erythrina velutina, Handroanthus chrysanthus (H. chrysanthus) and Terminali...