Global climate change has rippling effects on our environment, impacting where plants, animals, and humans can live. The USGS studies how climate change affects natural places and provides solutions to help protect fish, wildlife, and habitats.
How does climate change affect plants and animals?
Everything in the natural world is connected. Animals eat plants, insects pollinate flowers, microbes break down dead things. Living things are also connected to the “non-living” parts of their environments – they use rocks for shelter, they depend on rain to bloom, they hibernate when it gets cold. Together, these living and non-living components make up an ecosystem.
Climate helps shape ecosystems. Things like average temperatures, humidity, and rainfall determine where plants and animals live. If a region’s climate changes, the ecosystems change as well.
Climate change has diverse impacts on plants, animals, and ecosystems. Explore some of these impacts below.
USGS Helps Preserve Ecosystems
Scientists at the USGS study how climate change affects the Nation’s wildlife, fish, plants, and ecosystems. We also help resource managers develop and implement strategies to allow plants and animals to survive and thrive in new conditions. We generate our science side-by-side with partners to ensure results and tools are directly applicable to on-the-ground conservation, restoration, and management decisions. USGS climate science is used to protect natural areas across the country, from local-scale conservation decisions to national park climate scenario planning.
USGS science particularly focuses on helping resource managers, conservation agencies, and Indigenous peoples implement climate adaptation practices that intentionally help preserve species and landscapes under new climate conditions. For example, this could involve building sea walls to keep out rising sea levels, or planting drought-tolerant grasses in dry areas. Adapted landscapes may not look exactly the way they used to, but ideally the modifications allow them to continue to support the natural and human communities that rely on them. USGS scientists also use monitoring, field work, and modeling to understand how species naturally adapt to climate change, called adaptive capacity.
USGS science helps to:
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Understand climate change effects on fish, wildlife, plants, and ecosystems
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Model species range shifts under potential future conditions
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Identify species particularly vulnerable to climate change
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Identify areas relatively buffered from climate change (“climate refugia”) that may help vulnerable species survive
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Develop climate adaptation strategies and inform implementation for species and ecosystems
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Support DOI partners in incorporating climate information into conservation and management decisions, such as Species Status Assessments (SSAs) or State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs)
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Understand climate-induced shifts in phenology and identify potential management solutions
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Protect ecosystem services important to communities
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Measure species’ natural abilities to adapt to climate change (adaptive capacity)
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Support climate adaptation efforts of Tribal Nations and other Indigenous peoples
Explore some of the many USGS science projects on climate change effects on plants, animals, and ecosystems.
Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework
Climate-Informed State Wildlife Action Plans
CASC Fish Research
Understanding long-term drivers of vegetation change and stability in the Southern Rocky Mountains with paleoecological data and ecological models
Impacts of coastal and watershed changes on upper estuaries: causes and implications of wetland ecosystem transitions along the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
The Impact of Future Climate Variability on Shorebirds and Their Wetland Habitats in the South Central U.S.
Drivers and Impacts of North Pacific Climate Variability
Wetlands in the Quaternary
Sea Level Rise and Climate: Impacts on the Greater Everglades Ecosystem and Restoration
The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat): A Database and Interactive Tool for Inland Fisheries Management and Research
Evaluating Future Effects of Climate and Land Use on Fisheries Production in Inland Lakes
Developing an Agroforestry Dashboard for the Marshall Islands
- Overview
How does climate change affect plants and animals?
Everything in the natural world is connected. Animals eat plants, insects pollinate flowers, microbes break down dead things. Living things are also connected to the “non-living” parts of their environments – they use rocks for shelter, they depend on rain to bloom, they hibernate when it gets cold. Together, these living and non-living components make up an ecosystem.
Climate helps shape ecosystems. Things like average temperatures, humidity, and rainfall determine where plants and animals live. If a region’s climate changes, the ecosystems change as well.
Climate change has diverse impacts on plants, animals, and ecosystems. Explore some of these impacts below.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.USGS Helps Preserve Ecosystems
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.USGS scientists, like Research Ecologist Toni Lyn Morelli, study many different aspects of climate change impacts on fish, wildlife, plants, and ecosystems. Scientists at the USGS study how climate change affects the Nation’s wildlife, fish, plants, and ecosystems. We also help resource managers develop and implement strategies to allow plants and animals to survive and thrive in new conditions. We generate our science side-by-side with partners to ensure results and tools are directly applicable to on-the-ground conservation, restoration, and management decisions. USGS climate science is used to protect natural areas across the country, from local-scale conservation decisions to national park climate scenario planning.
USGS science particularly focuses on helping resource managers, conservation agencies, and Indigenous peoples implement climate adaptation practices that intentionally help preserve species and landscapes under new climate conditions. For example, this could involve building sea walls to keep out rising sea levels, or planting drought-tolerant grasses in dry areas. Adapted landscapes may not look exactly the way they used to, but ideally the modifications allow them to continue to support the natural and human communities that rely on them. USGS scientists also use monitoring, field work, and modeling to understand how species naturally adapt to climate change, called adaptive capacity.
USGS science helps to:
-
Understand climate change effects on fish, wildlife, plants, and ecosystems
-
Model species range shifts under potential future conditions
-
Identify species particularly vulnerable to climate change
-
Identify areas relatively buffered from climate change (“climate refugia”) that may help vulnerable species survive
-
Develop climate adaptation strategies and inform implementation for species and ecosystems
-
Support DOI partners in incorporating climate information into conservation and management decisions, such as Species Status Assessments (SSAs) or State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs)
-
Understand climate-induced shifts in phenology and identify potential management solutions
-
Protect ecosystem services important to communities
-
Measure species’ natural abilities to adapt to climate change (adaptive capacity)
-
Support climate adaptation efforts of Tribal Nations and other Indigenous peoples
-
- Publications
- Science
Explore some of the many USGS science projects on climate change effects on plants, animals, and ecosystems.
Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework
The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework is a decision-making tool that helps resource managers make informed strategies for responding to ecological changes resulting from climate change.Climate-Informed State Wildlife Action Plans
State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) serve as blueprints to conservation, helping states conserve wildlife before they become too rare or costly to restore. One of the required elements of a SWAP is to describe the threats facing species and habitats. Many states have identified climate variability and change as having the potential to influence species and habitats now and into the future.CASC Fish Research
The CASC Fish Research Program is a dynamic group of federal researchers and early-career scientists working together to explore the impacts of climate and other stressors on fish and aquatic systems to inform conservation, climate adaptation, and sustainable use.Understanding long-term drivers of vegetation change and stability in the Southern Rocky Mountains with paleoecological data and ecological models
Drought and fire are powerful disturbance agents that can trigger rapid and lasting changes in the forests of western North America. Over the last decade, increases in fire size and severity coincided with warming, drought, and earlier snowmelt, factors that projected climatic changes are likely to exacerbate. However, recent observations are brief relative to the lifespans of trees and include...Impacts of coastal and watershed changes on upper estuaries: causes and implications of wetland ecosystem transitions along the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
Estuaries and their surrounding wetlands are coastal transition zones where freshwater rivers meet tidal seawater. As sea levels rise, tidal forces move saltier water farther upstream, extending into freshwater wetland areas. Human changes to the surrounding landscape may amplify the effects of this tidal extension, impacting the resiliency and function of the upper estuarine wetlands. One visible...The Impact of Future Climate Variability on Shorebirds and Their Wetland Habitats in the South Central U.S.
Healthy wetlands provide buffers against drought, flooding, pollution, and other threats to humans and nature. Climate change imperils wetland health, including impacting the connections among wetlands that facilitate movements and prevent extinctions of wetland-dependent wildlife. One wildlife group of considerable conservation concern and vulnerability to climate induced wetland changes is migraDrivers and Impacts of North Pacific Climate Variability
Climate model forecasts indicate an increase in extreme hydrologic events, including floods and droughts, for California and the western U.S. in the future. To better understand what the consequences of this future change in climate may be, USGS scientists are studying the frequency, magnitude, and impacts of past hydroclimate variability and extremes in the region. This project produces well...Wetlands in the Quaternary
Wetlands accumulate organic-rich sediment or peat stratigraphically, making them great archives of past environmental change. Wetlands also act as hydrologic buffers on the landscape and are important to global biogeochemical cycling. This project uses wetland archives from a range of environments to better understand how vegetation, hydrology, and hydroclimate has changed on decadal to multi...Sea Level Rise and Climate: Impacts on the Greater Everglades Ecosystem and Restoration
The Greater Everglades Ecosystem covers much of south Florida, and the highest areas are only a few meters above sea level. Predictions of sea level rise and changes in storm intensity for the 21st century are particularly concerning to the urban population of Miami and the east coast, but also represent a challenge to Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park resource managers. The...The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat): A Database and Interactive Tool for Inland Fisheries Management and Research
Inland recreational fishing, defined as primarily leisure-driven fishing in freshwaters, is a popular past-time in the USA. State natural resource agencies endeavor to provide high-quality and sustainable fishing opportunities for anglers. Managers often use creel and other angler-survey data to inform state- and waterbody-level management efforts. Despite the broad implementation of angler surveyEvaluating Future Effects of Climate and Land Use on Fisheries Production in Inland Lakes
Inland fisheries are critical for global food security and human well-being. However, fish production may be threatened by changes in climate and land use. Understanding this threat is crucial to effectively manage inland fisheries in the future. To address this need, this project will identify which types of lakes across the globe are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate and land use changesDeveloping an Agroforestry Dashboard for the Marshall Islands
Agriculture and agroforestry (tree cultivation) are important activities for the Marshall Islands and other small islands to ensure food security and human health. The Marshallese have a long tradition of interplanting food-producing trees such as coconuts, breadfruit, and pandanus with bananas and root and vegetable crops. Locally grown food crops support community self-sufficiency, promote good - Data and More
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