American Journal of Climate Change, 2018, 7, 5-26 ISSN Online: 2167-9509 ISSN Print: 2167-9495
American Journal of Climate Change, 2018, 7, 5-26 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ajcc ISSN Online: 2167-9509 ISSN Print: 2167-9495 Potential Impacts of Temperature Projections on Selected Large Herbivores in Savanna Ecosystem of Kenya Mildred M. Aduma1*, Gilbert Ouma1, Mohammed Y. Said2, Gordon O. Wayumba3, Philip A. Omondi1, Lucy W. Njino4 1Institute of Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya 2Center for Sustainable Drylands Ecosystems and Societies, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya 3School of Surveying and Geospatial Sciences, Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya 4Directorate of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing, Nairobi, Kenya How to cite this paper: Aduma, M.M., Abstract Ouma, G., Said, M.Y., Wayumba, G.O., Omondi, P.A. and Njino, L.W. (2018) Po- Due to global land surface warming, severe temperature events are expected to tential Impacts of Temperature Projections occur more frequently and more extremely causing changes in biodiversity on Selected Large Herbivores in Savanna and altering movement and survival of large herbivores. There are increasing Ecosystem of Kenya. American Journal of Climate Change, 7, 5-26. observations of escalating wildlife range losses worldwide. In this study, we https://doi.org/10.4236/ajcc.2018.71003 investigated 15 large wild herbivores (4 migratory, 1 dispersing and 10 resi- dents) and their potential range changes in relation to projected temperatures Received: November 17, 2017 Accepted: February 9, 2018 changes based on three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 2.6, Published: February 12, 2018 4.5 and 8.5. Previous studies of Kenyan savannah have shown that increases in temperature can reduce the densities of wildlife significantly and after certain Copyright © 2018 by authors and thresholds the species can be lost in those landscapes.
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