Abstract
Climate change is creating new challenges for conservation and management of natural resources. As temperatures, rainfall patterns, and disturbance regimes change and sea levels rise, ecosystems are being transformed. With climate change species and communities may move out of the fixed systems in reserves that were established to protect them and may not have the needed migration corridors to successfully disperse. The rate at which climate is projected to change in coming decades is likely too fast for many species to genetically adapt or to migrate to new suitable areas. Climate change underscores the need to transform our view of the natural world. While many of our conservation tools and approaches will stay the same, a new perspective will enable us to better apply these tools to meet future challenges. This 3-page fact sheet summarizes recommendations from four recent reviews of the literature on climate change adaptation. Written by Rebecca G. Harvey, Laura A. Brandt, and Frank J. Mazzotti, and published by the UF Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, February 2012.
References
Glick, P. A. Staudt, and B. Stein. A New Era for Conservation: Review of the Climate Change Adaptation Literature. 2009. National Wildlife Federation.
Heller, N. E. and E. S. Zavaleta. 2009. Biodiversity management in the face of climate change: a review of 22 years of recommendations. Biological Conservation 142:14-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.10.006
IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007. Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. B. Metz, et al. (eds), Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Lawler, J. J. 2009. Climate change adaptation strategies for resource management and conservation planning. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1162:79-98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04147.x
West, J. M., S. H. Julius, P. Kareiva, C. Enquist, J. J. Lawler, B. Petersen, A .E. Johnson, and M. R. Shaw. 2009. U.S. natural resources and climate change: concepts and approaches for management adaptation. Environmental Management 44:1001-1021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-009-9345-1