Climate change and its effects on Asiatic Cheetah suitable habitats in Center of Iran (Case study: Yazd Province)

Asiatic Cheetah, which is critically endangered subspecies has survived only in arid habitats of the central plateau of Iran to less than 40 populations. The species population in the center of Iran, which mainly includes Yazd Province, has had the highest population decline and has lost the population dynamics. Hence, 2.9 million hectares of Yazd province’s habitats in which the species has been extinct locally were investigated for climate change over a 14-year period, from 2001 to 2014. In this study, firstly, we used the Maximum Entropy method to model the Asiatic Cheetah suitable habitat. Then, by using the Modis time series method, we identified the maximum land surface temperature and the weather stations data were used to finding the total annual precipitation changes. Assessment of the maximum temperature changes in the cheetah habitats showed that the average temperature increased by 24 percent of the study area during this period. Also, some parts of the southern part of the study area had an obvious reduction of the total annual precipitation. However, the study results showed that climate change factors, including changes in the maximum land surface temperature and total annual precipitation variations, during the study period, were not significant. Therefore, the most important reasons for the reduction of Asiatic cheetah population dynamics in the study area, during the study period are non-climatic factors.