Developing a Climate Change-Informed “Conservation Opportunity Area” Portfolio for Sensitive Species’ Preservation Active
Integrating climate change into place-based conservation (i.e. focusing efforts on a specific place or region) presents a pressing challenge in the future success of biodiversity conservation. In particular, the broad effects of climate change can make it difficult to prioritize specific actions in specific places. Currently, Natural Heritage New Mexico, along with state and federal partners, has developed Conservation Opportunity Areas for New Mexico representing locations where limited conservation funds can be effectively used for the preservation of sensitive species. Although the existing Conservation Opportunity Areas represent a best estimate of where conservation activities are most likely to have favorable outcomes, they do not currently take into account climate change.
To address this, the research team will develop a portfolio of climate change-informed Conservation Opportunity Areas using a combination of current and future projections of sensitive species distributions against the backdrop of the habitats they live in, which may also change. The team will use computer learning techniques to predict the distributions of rare plants and animals, and their habitats up to the year 2050, a year that works within most conservation planning horizons. Using this information, researchers will identify potential climate refugia within existing Conservation Opportunity Areas that retain the climatic conditions necessary for the plants and animals to survive in their current homes. These refugia offer targets where current conservation actions can be focused. Outside Conservation Opportunity Area boundaries, the project will look to identify future climate-change informed biodiversity hotspots to consider in long-range conservation planning. A final element will be to identify pathways and obstacles to plant and animal migration between current and future Conservation Opportunity Areas.
The goal of this work is to provide conservation planners, land managers, decision makers, and the public with a working framework for addressing the long-term persistence of sensitive species, that can be applied not only in New Mexico but elsewhere, to help meet conservation goals in the face of climate change.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 5f04cb3982ce21d4c3f89ccf)
Integrating climate change into place-based conservation (i.e. focusing efforts on a specific place or region) presents a pressing challenge in the future success of biodiversity conservation. In particular, the broad effects of climate change can make it difficult to prioritize specific actions in specific places. Currently, Natural Heritage New Mexico, along with state and federal partners, has developed Conservation Opportunity Areas for New Mexico representing locations where limited conservation funds can be effectively used for the preservation of sensitive species. Although the existing Conservation Opportunity Areas represent a best estimate of where conservation activities are most likely to have favorable outcomes, they do not currently take into account climate change.
To address this, the research team will develop a portfolio of climate change-informed Conservation Opportunity Areas using a combination of current and future projections of sensitive species distributions against the backdrop of the habitats they live in, which may also change. The team will use computer learning techniques to predict the distributions of rare plants and animals, and their habitats up to the year 2050, a year that works within most conservation planning horizons. Using this information, researchers will identify potential climate refugia within existing Conservation Opportunity Areas that retain the climatic conditions necessary for the plants and animals to survive in their current homes. These refugia offer targets where current conservation actions can be focused. Outside Conservation Opportunity Area boundaries, the project will look to identify future climate-change informed biodiversity hotspots to consider in long-range conservation planning. A final element will be to identify pathways and obstacles to plant and animal migration between current and future Conservation Opportunity Areas.
The goal of this work is to provide conservation planners, land managers, decision makers, and the public with a working framework for addressing the long-term persistence of sensitive species, that can be applied not only in New Mexico but elsewhere, to help meet conservation goals in the face of climate change.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 5f04cb3982ce21d4c3f89ccf)