A systematic review on the potential impact of future climate change on India's biodiversity using species distribution model (SDM) studies: trends, and data gaps.

Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) is used to identify a species' potential current and future distribution. While numerous global studies have reported species distribution changes in various future climate change scenarios, regional relevance has often been overlooked. In this study, we conducted a systematic literature review to assess the future climate change impacts on India's biodiversity across all biogeographic zones. Our findings revealed a significant increase in research on climate change related SDM after 2015. These studies were published mainly in ecological, and biodiversity conservation journals. We found that (a) The Himalayan region is the most studied biogeographic zone (n = 49), followed by the Western Ghats (n = 15). (b) Plants are the most studied taxa (n = 77), followed by invertebrates (n = 11). (c) Gaps in the literature regarding the climate change impacts on the distribution of amphibians (n = 2) and reptiles (n = 1), and studies specific to Islands (n = 0) and Coastal (n = 2) biogeographic zones. (d) 60% of studies did not mention or calculate uncertainties arising from data gaps and model parameters. We highlight the need for more studies dedicated to lesser-studied taxa. We recommend that in the future the quality of SDM-related studies be critically reviewed to ensure that they are reproducible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]