A long-term monitoring programme to understand the impact of climate change on terrestrial herpetofauna of India.

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change is likely to have wide ranging impacts on all aspects of life on earth. Among the many challenges posed by climate change, of particular importance to biologists is its impact on biodiversity and its consequences for ecosystems. South Asia harbours a rich diversity of amphibians and reptiles, which are likely to be impacted by changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. Any effort to mitigate the negative impact of climate change on herpetofauna in the region requires critical ecological and biological data, such as species distributions, population dynamics, phenology, thermal biology etc. Measures have to be put in place to monitor the status of species in key biodiversity areas so that detection of climate change impacts can help frame management interventions. The Long-term Ecological Observatories programme on herpetofauna is an initiative to create such a monitoring programme in different parts of India. In this paper, we provide a background to this project and outline an overview and some expected outcomes.