While climate change is recognized as a major future threat to biodiversity, most species are currently threatened by extensive human‐induced habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation. Tropical high‐altitude alpine and montane forest ecosystems and their biodiversity are particularly sensitive to temperature increases under climate change, but they are also subject to accelerated pressures from land conversion and degradation due to a growing human population. We studied the combined effects of anthropogenic land‐use change, past and future climate changes and mountain range isolation on the endemic Ethiopian Highlands long‐eared bat, Plecotus balensis, an understudied bat that is restricted to the remnant natural high‐altitude Afroalpine and Afromontane habitats. We integrated ecological niche modelling, landscape genetics and model‐based inference to assess the genetic, geographic and demographic impacts of past and recent environmental changes. We show that mountain range isolation and historic climates shaped population structure and patterns of genetic variation, but recent anthropogenic land‐use change and habitat degradation are associated with a severe population decline and loss of genetic diversity. Models predict that the suitable niche of this bat has been progressively shrinking since the last glaciation period. This study highlights threats to Afroalpine and Afromontane biodiversity, squeezed to higher altitudes under climate change while losing genetic diversity and suffering population declines due to anthropogenic land‐use change. We conclude that the conservation of tropical montane biodiversity requires a holistic approach, using genetic, ecological and geographic information to understand the effects of environmental changes across temporal scales and simultaneously addressing the impacts of multiple threats.

中文翻译：

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空中：埃塞俄比亚高地蝙蝠的基因监测揭示了气候变化和栖息地丧失对非洲山地生物多样性的威胁

虽然气候变化被认为是未来对生物多样性的主要威胁，但大多数物种目前都受到人类引起的栖息地广泛丧失、破碎和退化的威胁。热带高海拔高山和山地森林生态系统及其生物多样性对气候变化下温度升高特别敏感，但它们也受到人口增长导致的土地转化和退化加速压力的影响。我们研究了人为土地利用变化、过去和未来的气候变化以及山脉隔离对埃塞俄比亚高地特有长耳蝙蝠Plecotus balensis的综合影响，这是一种仅限于残余的天然高海拔非洲高山和非洲山地蝙蝠的研究不足的蝙蝠栖息地。我们整合了生态位建模、景观遗传学和基于模型的推理，以评估过去和近期环境变化对遗传、地理和人口的影响。我们表明，山脉隔离和历史气候塑造了种群结构和遗传变异模式，但最近的人为土地利用变化和栖息地退化与种群严重下降和遗传多样性丧失有关。模型预测，自末次冰河期以来，这种蝙蝠的适宜生态位一直在逐渐缩小。这项研究强调了对非洲高山和非洲山地生物多样性的威胁，这些生物多样性在气候变化下被挤压到更高的海拔，同时由于人为土地利用变化而丧失遗传多样性并遭受人口下降。我们的结论是，热带山地生物多样性的保护需要采取整体方法，利用遗传、生态和地理信息来了解跨时间尺度的环境变化的影响，并同时应对多种威胁的影响。