Managing Climate Change Refugia for Climate Adaptation

Refugia have long been studied from paleontological and biogeographical perspectives to understand how populations persisted during past periods of unfavorable climate. Recently, researchers have applied the idea to contemporary landscapes to identify climate change refugia, here defined as areas re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 11; no. 8; p. e0159909
Main Authors: Morelli, Toni Lyn, Daly, Christopher, Dobrowski, Solomon Z., Dulen, Deanna M., Ebersole, Joseph L., Jackson, Stephen T., Lundquist, Jessica D., Millar, Constance I., Maher, Sean P., Monahan, William B., Nydick, Koren R., Redmond, Kelly T., Sawyer, Sarah C., Stock, Sarah, Beissinger, Steven R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 10.08.2016
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Adaptation
Adaptation, Physiological
Analysis
Animals
Biology and Life Sciences
Climate adaptation
Climate Change
Collection Review
Conservation
Cultural resources
Earth Sciences
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Ecophysiology
Ecosystem
Environmental management
Evolutionary adaptation
Global temperature changes
Habitats
Landscape
National parks
open climate campaign
Rabbits
Refugia
Refugium
Social aspects
Zoology
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Refugia have long been studied from paleontological and biogeographical perspectives to understand how populations persisted during past periods of unfavorable climate. Recently, researchers have applied the idea to contemporary landscapes to identify climate change refugia, here defined as areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that enable persistence of valued physical, ecological, and socio-cultural resources. We differentiate historical and contemporary views, and characterize physical and ecological processes that create and maintain climate change refugia. We then delineate how refugia can fit into existing decision support frameworks for climate adaptation and describe seven steps for managing them. Finally, we identify challenges and opportunities for operationalizing the concept of climate change refugia. Managing climate change refugia can be an important option for conservation in the face of ongoing climate change.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
Conceived and designed the experiments: TLM SPM CIM SRB. Analyzed the data: TLM SPM KRN WBM JLE CD SZD DD STJ JDL CIM KTR SCS SS SRB. Wrote the paper: TLM SPM KRN WBM JLE CD SZD DD STJ JDL CIM KTR SCS SS SRB.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0159909