Biodiversity in a Changing Climate

One major consequence of climate change is abrupt, dramatic changes in regional biodiversity. Even if the most optimistic scenarios for mitigating climate change transpire, the fate of many wild species rests on the shoulders of people engaged in conservation planning, management, and policy. Providing managers with the latest and most useful climate change research is critical and requires challenging the conventional divide between scientists and managers.

Biodiversity in a Changing Climate promotes dialogue among scientists, decision makers, and managers who are grappling with climate-related threats to species and ecosystems in diverse forms. The book includes case studies and best practices used to address impacts related to climate change across a broad spectrum of species and habitats—from coastal krill and sea urchins to prairie grass and mountain bumblebees. Focused on California, the issues and strategies presented in this book will prove relevant to regions across the West, as well as other regions, and provide a framework for how scientists and managers in any region can bridge the communication divide to manage biodiversity in a rapidly changing world.

Biodiversity and a Changing Climate will prove an indispensable guide to students, scientists, and professionals engaged in conservation and resource management.

Terry L. Root is Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and Professor, by courtesy, in the Department of Biology at Stanford University.

Kimberly R. Hall is a Climate Change Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Michigan State University.

Mark  P. Herzog is Quantitative Ecologist and Wildlife Biologist at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center.

Christine A. Howell is the Regional Wildlife Ecologist for the Pacific Southwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service.

PREFACE

1. A NEW ERA FOR ECOLOGISTS: INCORPORATING CLIMATE CHANGE INTO NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 

PART I. KEY CHANGES IN CLIMATE AND LIFE
2. CLIMATE CHANGE FROM THE GLOBE TO CALIFORNIA 
3. CLIMATIC INFLUENCES ON ECOSYSTEMS

PART II. LEARNING FROM CASE STUDIES AND DIALOGUES BETWEEN SCIENTISTS AND RESOURCE MANAGERS
4. MODELING KRILL IN THE CALIFORNIA CURRENT: A 2005 CASE STUDY
5. SHIFTS IN MARINE BIOGEOGRAPHIC RANGES
6. INTEGRATING GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND CONSERVATION: A KLAMATH RIVER CASE STUDY
7. POLLINATORS AND MEADOW RESTORATION
8. ELEVATIONAL SHIFTS IN BREEDING BIRDS IN THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DESERT REGION
9. CONSERVING CALIFORNIA GRASSLANDS INTO AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
10. SPECIES INVASIONS: LINKING CHANGES IN PLANT COMPOSITION TO CHANGES IN CLIMATE

PART III. PERSPECTIVES FOR FRAMING BIOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF RAPID CLIMATE CHANGE
11. EVOLUTIONARY CONSERVATION UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE
12. FOSSILS PREDICT BIOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE
13. HISTORICAL DATA ON SPECIES OCCURRENCE: BRIDGING THE PAST TO THE FUTURE

GLOSSARY
INDEX