• As climate shifts, species will need to

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon May 2 22:30:40 2022
    As climate shifts, species will need to relocate, and people may have to
    help them

    Date:
    May 2, 2022
    Source:
    University of California - Santa Cruz
    Summary:
    Climate change is already affecting plants and animals worldwide
    and is a growing threat to biodiversity, adding a new layer to the
    existing challenges of habitat loss, invasive species, pollution,
    and overexploitation. A new study surveyed the recommendations of
    scientists for managing biodiversity in the face of climate change,
    providing a summary of practical guidance and identifying areas
    in need of further research.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Climate change is already affecting plants and animals worldwide
    and is a growing threat to biodiversity, adding a new layer to the
    existing challenges of habitat loss, invasive species, pollution,
    and overexploitation.


    ==========================================================================
    A new study, published in the April issue of Biological Conservation,
    surveyed the recommendations of scientists for managing biodiversity in
    the face of climate change, providing a summary of practical guidance
    and identifying areas in need of further research.

    "There is an enormous need to think ahead and be proactive, as well as
    a growing recognition that we have to act now," said senior author Erika Zavaleta, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.

    The climatic conditions to which species have adapted are shifting
    across the geography of a warming planet, leaving plants, animals, and
    entire ecosystems in danger of being stranded in places where they can
    no longer survive.

    "Climate change is causing a mismatch between where species are now and
    where the habitat and conditions suitable for them are moving," Zavaleta
    said. "We need to think about where suitable habitats for different
    ecological communities will be in the future, and how they can get there." Climate change is nothing new in the history of our planet, and species
    have moved and evolved in response to it. But current changes driven by
    the burning of fossil fuels are happening much faster than past climatic shifts. In addition, the current fragmentation of natural habitats makes
    it much harder for species to move than it was in the past.



    ==========================================================================
    "The need to move is greater while the ability to move is less,"
    Zavaleta said.

    "Things are changing, and we need to assist the adaptive responses of the natural world if we don't want to lose both the species and the amenities
    they provide for people. We depend on natural ecosystems, and helping
    them adapt is not separate from helping people and communities adapt to
    climate change." The new paper updates an earlier survey published in
    2009 by Zavaleta and Nicole Heller, then a postdoctoral researcher in Zavaleta's lab. Blair McLaughlin, an assistant professor of ecology at Hampshire College in Massachusetts who earned her Ph.D. in Zavaleta's
    lab and is currently a visiting scholar at UCSC, led the new analysis
    and is first author of the paper.

    The researchers found that current recommendations have gone beyond
    conceptual guidance to provide more specific and actionable ideas about strategies to implement for particular ecosystems or species. "There
    has been a lot more on- the-ground implementation of some of these
    approaches," Zavaleta said.

    Longstanding conservation measures, such as protecting and restoring
    ecosystems and increasing their connectivity, remain critically important
    in the context of climate change. To address climate-related challenges
    in particular, however, three novel strategies have received growing
    attention in recent years: climate change refugia, assisted migration,
    and protecting climate- adaptive genetics.

    "If you think of a valley oak, with acorns that are carried only a short distance by birds and are only viable in the year they are dropped, you
    can have connectivity but the trees are not going to move at the same
    pace as the drying that's happening in parts of their range," Zavaleta explained. "So do we watch their range contract and disappear? Or do
    we bank them as seedlings in botanical gardens? And what do we need to
    be learning now about how to put them back out into the landscape where
    they can survive?" Identifying and protecting areas that can serve as
    a refuge for species threatened by climate change fits easily within
    the traditional framework of biodiversity conservation. Creating climate
    change refugia can include habitat restoration efforts, such as restoring woodland streams to raise the water table.



    ========================================================================== Assisted migration includes "assisted gene flow," which involves
    moving organisms between populations within a species' existing range
    to preserve genetic diversity, as well as moving species beyond their historical range.

    This kind of direct intervention to move threatened species into areas
    where they could have a better chance of survival in the future is not
    without controversy, however. Concerns include potential impacts on other organisms after translocation, as well as the possibility of harming the targeted population if translocated individuals do poorly in the new site.

    "I feel like the devil is in the details, but I also think translocation
    has been mischaracterized as an untested strategy, when actually it
    has been practiced for over a century and probably longer," Zavaleta
    said. "Forestry, for example, has a long practice of planting trees from
    a wide range of locations in areas that are being restored. But we do
    have a lot more to learn, especially for certain animals and species that
    are not well understood." Scientists also want to protect the genetic diversity of species, especially genetic variants that might be better
    adapted to hotter, drier conditions.

    "These are the very conditions that we are likely to see more of in the future," McLaughlin said. "Preserving the climate-adaptive evolutionary potential of a species before it's lost is critical to make sure we have
    the genetic resources we need to help species adapt to novel climate
    futures." For example, oaks at the southern end of their species' range
    or that survived a big die-off during a drought might have genetic traits
    that enhance survival in worsening conditions. Seeds and seedlings from
    those trees could be protected in a "gene bank" so that those traits
    are not lost.

    McLaughlin currently leads a pilot project to create a gene bank for blue
    oaks in California, which suffered a pronounced die off in the southern
    part of their distribution during the last drought.

    "We're planting out seedlings from blue oaks that are adapted to hot
    dry conditions, just so they're banked there in case there are more die
    offs," she said. "In California, it's become clear that we need to do
    this now." In addition to McLaughlin and Zavaleta, the coauthors of
    the paper include Nicole Heller, now at the Carnegie Museum of Natural
    History in Pittsburgh, Sarah Skikne at the University of Minnesota,
    Erin Beller at Google, Rachel Blakey at UCLA, Rachael Olliff-Yang at
    UC Berkeley, Naia Morueta-Holme at the University of Copenhagen, and
    Brittni Brown at Payette National Forest in Idaho.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
    University_of_California_-_Santa_Cruz. Original written by Tim
    Stephens. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. B.C. McLaughlin, S.A. Skikne, E. Beller, R.V. Blakey,
    R.L. Olliff-Yang,
    N. Morueta-Holme, N.E. Heller, B.J. Brown,
    E.S. Zavaleta. Conservation strategies for the climate crisis: An
    update on three decades of biodiversity management recommendations
    from science. Biological Conservation, 2022; 268: 109497 DOI:
    10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109497 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220502120434.htm

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