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Scientists look at impact of climate change on conservation biology Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology July 23, 2005 Below is a sampling of some of the climate change-related papers submitted for the conference. All descriptions are excepts from the official "Book of Abstracts" from the meeting. More abstracts. Pyke, Christopher; ANDELMAN, SANDY; Midgley, Guy. NCEAS, 735 State Street, Suite 300, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, andelman((AT))nceas.ucsb.edu (CP, SA). South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X7, Claremont 7735, Cape Town, South Africa. Climate change threatens biodiversity persistence and challenges the effectiveness of reserve networks as a conservation strategy. Reserves are fixed in space, yet relatively small changes in climate can lead to shifts in the distribution of suitable habitat and environmental conditions for species and communities, jeopardizing the role of reserves as safe havens for biodiversity. Many reserve networks do not proportionally capture the range of environmental conditions currently occupied by species and communities. These biases will likely be exacerbated by habitat loss and climate change. We demonstrate a method to identify and prioritize reserve networks that maximize representation despite climate change, habitat loss, and changes in species distributions. We assessed representation provided by existing reserves for 301 Proteaceae species in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa under historic and projected 2050 climate. If the current reserve system is not supplemented, reserves in 2050 will capture an increasingly skewed sample of climatic conditions suitable for Proteaceae. We demonstrate how these biases can be repaired by systematically establishing new reserves using an approach that achieves nearly the best possible improvement in climatic representation while also meeting current biodiversity representation goals FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE - AN OVERLOOKED FACTOR IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION PLANNING. WILLIS, STEPHEN G.; Collingham, Yvonne C.; Hilton, Geoff; Rahbek, Carsten; Huntley, Brian. Institute of Ecosystem Science, School of Biological & Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH13LE, UK (SGW, YCC, BH). Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK (GH). Vertebrate Dept, Zoological Museum, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark (CR). Policies for biodiversity conservation are currently based largely around networks of nature reserves, managed to protect biodiversity. Designation of such reserves is based entirely upon current patterns of biodiversity and takes no account of the fact that, over time, species ranges shift. Such shifts are driven primarily by climate change. Given past shifts in species ranges and predicted future changes in the global climate, it is essential that the effects of future climate change are incorporated into conservation planning to safeguard biodiversity in the long-term. Shifting species ranges could affect the management of extant reserves and enforce the acquisition of new reserves to continue protecting species whose ranges no longer span such reserves. In areas where extensive movement of many species are predicted, a wholesale shift in fundamental conservation policy may be necessary, with a switch from maintaining discrete reserves to making the intermediate habitat matrix more permeable to range shifts. Here we use species-climate envelope modelling to demonstrate the potential effects of climate change on the future viability of a reserve network, using the example of BirdLife International's Important Bird Areas network across sub-Saharan Africa THE FUTURE CLIMATE OF THE CERRADOS. Nobre, Carlos A.; OLIVEIRA, GILVAN; Oyama, Marcos D.; Marengo, José A.; Cardoso, Manoel. Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Cachoeira Paulista, 12630-000, Brazil, sampaio((AT))cptec.inpe.br (CAN, GSO, JAM, MC). Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço, Centro Técnico Aeroespacial, São José dos Campos, Brazil (MDO). The climate of the Cerrados is responding to two concurrent perturbations: rapid rates of land-use change, mostly conversion to cropland, and global warming. Various scenarios of regional climate change in the Cerrados due to global warming point out to a climate warmer by 2° to 5°C by the end of this century. That could lead to significant species extinctions and redistribution. When these scenarios are used as input to CPTEC Potential Biome Model, it projects that an impoverished savanna would expand to the north occupying areas of forest cover. Scenarios of biome change and redistribution due to climate change must be taken into account for conservation policies of the Cerrados THE FUTURE CLIMATE OF AMAZONIA. NOBRE, CARLOS A.; Oyama, Marcos D.; Oliveira, Gilvan; S. Marengo, José A. Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Cachoeira Paulista, 12630 Brazil, nobre((AT))cptec.inpe.br (CAN, GSO, HJAM). Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço, Centro Técnico Aeroespacial, São José dos Campos, Brazil (MDO). The climate of Amazonia is responding to two concurrent perturbations: rapid rates of land-use change, mostly conversion of forest to pasture or cropland, and global warming. The former is liked to increased surface temperatures, decreased evapotranspiration as revealed by observations. It is being hypothesized that biomass burning may lead to a delay in the onset of the rainy season. Modeling studies indicate that basin-wide rainfall would decrease with large-scale deforestation. On the other hand, various scenarios of regional climate change in Amazonia due to global warming point out to a climate warmer by 2° to 5°C by the end of this century. When these scenarios are used as input to CPTEC Potential Biome Model, it projects that large portions of the forest could become impoverished savannas. Scenarios of biome change and redistribution due to climate change must be taken into account for conservation policies of the Amazonian countries EFFECT OF LIFE HISTORY TRAITS ON CLIMATIC DEPENDENCY OF SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS. KARVE, ANJALI D.; Manne, Lisa L. Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON M1C 1A4, Canada, (karve((AT))utsc.utoronto.ca). Species distributions are partly governed by climatic tolerances. Different species distributions are characterized by different climatic variables, but with some broad generality across species (e. g., many species are limited by extreme temperatures). Identifi- cation of these key variables for individual species will improve predictions of their distributions with projected change in climate over time. Species with similar ecology or life history may be linked to the same climatic variables, and thus would be expected to respond similarly to change in those variables. We analyze distribution models for climatic tolerances of South American mammals, and we find that in some cases, climatic dependencies covary with life history traits. As well, the strength of the climatic dependence can be predicted by some life history traits. If strong climatic dependence among ecological groups is a general phenomenon, then in the absence of complete information, life history traits provide a preliminary expectation for how a poorly known species might respond to change in climate CONSERVATION AND LOSS OF ECOSYSTEM BIOMASS AND CARBON (C) POOLS AFTER DEFORESTATION AND AGRICULTURAL LAND USE CONVERSIONS IN COSTA RICAN LANDSCAPES. JOBSE, JUDITH C.; Kauffman, J. Boone; Watson, V.; Hughes, R. Flint. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis OR, 97330, USA, jobsej((AT))onid.orst.edu (JCJ). Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 1151 Punchbowl St. Roo Honolulu HI, 96813, USA (JBK). Tropical Science Center, PO Box 8-3870-1000, San Jose, Costa Rica (VW). Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Research Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, 23 East Kawili St. Hilo, HI 96720, USA (RFH). We determined total aboveground and soil carbon pools (1 m depth) in 31 Costa Rican pastures representing chronosequence sets within 6 different life zones that represent a precipitation/ temperature gradient from tropical dry forest to lower montane rain forest. In addition we sampled banana (n=11), coffee (n=10) and sugarcane plantations (n=10) across their range of distribution. Sites were compared to corresponding mature forests that had been sampled in a companion study. Aboveground C pools decreased dramatically with forest-to-agriculture conversion (44 - 99% average loss); although one pasture lost only 25% of the aboveground C pools due to the presence of large remnant trees. Aboveground C pools in sugarcane plantations are equivalent to 17-58% of the C pools found in nearby forests. Soil C pools in pastures compared to mature forests are not significantly different in most life zones except for the tropical wet forest, where soil C pools in pastures are 85 Mg/ha higher then in forests. These results show that protection of wet/rain forests and large remnant trees in agricultural lands could conserve large amounts of carbon in tropical landscapes. It highlights the importance of land use management/history and climate in determining C pool dynamics and potential C sequestration Society for Conservation Biology - Brasilia 2005 News index | RSS | News Feed Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
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