An estimate of the water budget for the endangered night parrot of Australia under recent and future climates

Abstract

BackgroundEndangered species management must now incorporate the potential effects of climate change, but this is often in the context of limited data. The endangered night parrot was recently rediscovered in the Australian arid zone and a major effort is underway to ensure its survival. A key question is to what extent it is dependent on standing water under current and future climates, as this has major implications for understanding and managing its habitat requirements. However, very little is known about its ecology and physiology, and its conservation status precludes invasive ecophysiological studies.MethodHere we show how the methods of biophysical ecology permit strong inferences ab..