Temporal and spatial dynamics of potential habitat for rodent species in the Ordos Basin, China, under climate change

not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown Abstract: It is widely believed that anthropogenic climate change is driving the restructuring of global biological communities. Here, we use the MaxEnt model to predict the distribution patterns, main influencing factors, and range changes of various small rodents living in the important Ordos Basin in China under different climate change scenarios in the future. We found that NDVI, annual average precipitation, and soil organic carbon content are important driving factors affecting the suitability of small rodent habitat distribution in the region. At the same time, the main influencing factors were also different for different rodent species. We captured a total of 700 small rodents from 9 species and selected 4 dominant species for analysis and found that, under the situation of future climate warming, the high-suitability habitat area of five-toed jumping mice and small hairy footed mice will decrease, while that of gerbils will increase. Our research results suggest that local governments should take early preventive measures, strengthen species protection, reduce the possibility of plague outbreaks, and respond to ecological challenges brought by climate change in a timely manner.