Research overview: biome shifts between grassland and forest in cat ranges

Climate change can shift the balance between grassland, savanna, shrubland, and forest, transforming the habitat templates that different cats require. This overview surveys how projected biome shifts, forest encroaching on alpine meadow, savanna giving way to woodland or desert, grassland converting to scrub, reshape habitat for species adapted to particular vegetation structures. It reviews the modeling of vegetation responses to climate and the lags and disturbances that mediate them. The synthesis frames biome shift as a fundamental driver of long-term habitat change for cats, explaining why a species' fate can hinge on whether its preferred vegetation type expands or contracts, and why open-habitat specialists and forest specialists may move in opposite directions under the same warming.