Policies to reduce global warming by offering credits for carbon sequestration have neglected the effects of forest management on biodiversity. I review properties of forest ecosystems and management options for enhancing the resistance and resilience of forests to climate change. Although forests, as a class, have proved resilient to past changes in climate, today’s fragmented and degraded forests are more vulnerable. Adaptation of species to climate change can occur through phenotypic plasticity, evolution, or migration to suitable sites, with the latter probably the most common response in the past.
Assessing species vulnerability to climate change
The effects of climate change on biodiversity are increasingly well documented, and many methods have been developed to assess species’ vulnerability to climatic changes, both ongoing and projected in the coming decades. To minimize global biodiversity losses, conservationists need to identify those species that are likely to be most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In this Review, we summarize different currencies used for assessing species’ climate change vulnerability. We describe three main approaches used to derive these currencies (correlative, mechanistic and trait-based), and their associated data requirements, spatial and temporal scales of application and modelling methods. Read More >
Approaches to Evaluating Climate Change Impacts on Species: A Guide to Initiating the Adaptation Planning Process
Assessing the impact of climate change on species and associated management objectives is a critical initial step for engaging in the adaptation planning process. Multiple approaches are available. While all possess limitations to their application associated with the uncertainties inherent in the data and models that inform their results, conducting and incorporating impact assessments into the adaptation planning process at least provides some basis for making resource management decisions that are becoming inevitable in the face of rapidly changing climate.
Adaptation Strategies Guide for Water Utilities
Adapting your system and operations to climate change challenges requires consideration and planning. How
ever, adaptation planning is not necessarily a new effort, distinct from other utility practices. Because adaptation strategies can often provide multiple benefits, adaptation planning can be integrated into emergency response planning, capacity development, capital investment planning, water supply and demand planning, conservation practices, and infrastructure maintenance.
Adaptation to Climate Change in the Transport Sector: A Review
The paper identifies the literature that deals with adaptation to climate change in the transport
sector by means of an extensive search, and presents a systematic review of the publications. Although it is frequently claimed that this socially and economically important sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change, there is comparatively little research into adaptation by industry, utilities and settlements. The 63 sources we found are analysed following an action theory of adaptation that distinguishes different adaptational functions. A very heterogeneous set of adaptations is identified and the actors and means of adaptation are classified by an open coding procedure. The paper shows that a broad diversity of actors is relevant for adaptation in the transport sector – ranging from transportation service providers to public and private sector actors and private households. Most adaptations discussed in the literature require inputs in the form of technical means, institutional means, and knowledge. The review shows that the existing iterature either focuses on overly general and vague proposals, or on detailed technical measures. The paper
concludes that the knowledge on adapting transport to climate change is still in a stage of infancy
and suggests fields for further research.
Adaptation to climate change in forest management
Adapting to Climate Change – A Risk-based Guide for Local Governments
Adapting to climate change may be one of the greatest challenges facing northern communities during the next century. This Guide has been written to primarily to assist local and regional governments understand the risks of predicted climate impacts and how to manage them. The Guide should also be useful for health officials, emergency managers, and businesses.
Risk management is a process for selecting the best course of action in uncertain situations. It does this by helping us identify, understand, analyze and communicate about risks. The Guide follows the framework for risk management described in the Canadian national standard “Risk Management: Guidelines for Decision-makers” (CAN/CSA- Q850-01)
Adapting to Coastal Climate Change – A Guidebook for Development Planners
The challenges we all must face in adapting to climate variability and change present themselves with increasing
urgency. Nowhere will these challenges be greater than in the developing world where often weak institutions and governance systems struggle to deal with mounting pressures from population growth, inadequate infrastructure, and diminishing or already depleted natural resources….
Adapting to Climate Change: A Guide for State Coastal Managers – A Great Lakes Supplement
Biodiversity management in the face of climate change: A review of 22 years of recommendations
Climate change creates new challenges for biodiversity conservation. Species ranges and ecological dynamics are already responding to recent climate shifts, and current reserves will not continue to support all species they were designed to protect.
