5. Conclusion
With the datasets of fossils and extant taxa of the macaques, this study integrally analyses the variables associated with bioclimatic components, environmental characters, and human population – which have significantly shaped macaques’ evolutionary distribution patterns from LIG to the present on mainland East Asia, based on which their future distribution profiles in the 2050s are constructed, referring to the two CO2 emission scenarios. Some main results include:
1). Macaques’ suitable distributions, initially concentrated in the Southwest, Central, and Coastal during LIG and LGM, started reducing in the eastern Southwest and the south of Central and Coastal after LGM.
2). Diminishing carbon emissions due to deforestation, coal combustion, and other human activities but increasing habitat restoration, which China has emphasized, would undoubtedly allow the macaques to maintain their current distribution areas.
3). Precipitation fluctuation, the increased human population size, and temperature changes would continue to play a dominant role in the potential development of suitable distributions for the macaques.
4). To allow the macaques, and the other animals in mainland China, to maintain sustainable diversity and more suitable distributions for conservation purposes, we propose a ) restoring some fragmented forests in suitable distribution areas, b ) expanding the sizes of established protected areas or increasing buffer zones with ecological corridors between the fragmentations by roads and human construction.
5) The Southwest and southeast of the Northwest in China will provide valuable future shelters for the macaques and perhaps other animals, considering more migration corridors will be reserved there. Thus, those areas should be prioritized in their conservation.