Vulnerability of Cerrado threatened mammals: an integrative landscape and climate modeling approach

Species vulnerability is defined based on their exposition, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to a given impact. Considering limitations to estimate the sensitivity component, we developed a framework integrating the knowledge on ecological niche models and extinction thresholds, generating species sensitivity scenarios at the landscape scale. Our aim was to assess species and landscape vulnerability for threatened mammal species from the Brazilian Cerrado by considering seven types of human-impacts and climatic suitability. We assumed that climatic-suitable landscapes with less than 50% of remaining natural vegetation are not suitable for species, while in landscapes with 50–60% of remaining natural vegetation, populations are highly vulnerable. We found a spatial match between climatic-suitable areas and highly-impacted landscape (