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Society for Conservation Biology: 2002 Annual Meeting

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Society for Conservation Biology: 2002 Annual Meeting



Society for Conservation Biology 16th Annual Meeting July 14-July 19 2002
co-hosted by DICE and the British Ecological Society


Abstracts for Symposium Fifteen

Climate change and biodiversity: what are the solutions?

Cornwallis Lecture Theatre 1
Thursday 18th July: 10.15 - 12.15




(BLOCK CAPITALS indicate the presenting author)

10.15 - 10.45
WATKINSON, ANDREW R., Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK., (a.watkinson@uea.ac.uk)

WILL CARBON REDUCTION AND STORAGE POLICIES BE SUFFICIENT FOR PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY?

The mitigation measures that are potentially available to reduce the sources of greenhouse gases or enhance their sinks will be outlined. With specific reference to the impacts that these measures will have on biodiversity, this talk will assess the extent to which the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage alone have the potential to limit the effects of climate change on biodiversity and in certain cases enhance it. The impact of a range of future scenarios on climate change and consequent sea level rise will be considered together with a range of measures to reduce and store carbon, including manipulation of the carbon cycle through forestry and agriculture, biological uptake in the oceans and geo-engineering.



10.45 - 11.15
THOMAS, CHRIS D., Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation,, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK., (c.d.thomas@leeds.ac.uk)

SPECIES DISPERSAL AND TRANSLOCATION IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is predicted to result in the distributions of many species undertaking major shifts, but how many species will be able to achieve their new distributions, and should such distribution changes should be encouraged or resisted? This talk will assess which types of species have and have not been able to shift their distributions already, how landscape patterns affect range changes, and how climate-related changes to the habitat requirements of species will affect metapopulation dynamics (and hence distribution changes). I will consider how reserve strategies (including corridors) might either speed up or retard distribution changes; and the potential roles of natural range changes versus accidental and intentional translocations.



11.15 - 11.45
MOSS, BRIAN, School of Biological Sciences, Derby Building, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3 GS, UK, (brmoss@liverpool.ac.uk)

PROTECTION OF FRESHWATER BIODIVERSITY IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Freshwaters are inherently unstable systems. They have repeatedly been disturbed by ice, flood and drought; their biotas are evolutionarily young and endemism, although it occurs, especially in the Tropics, is comparatively scarce. There will be impacts of climate change, both gradual ones and those brought about by extreme weather events. However, ecological adjustment to these changes is unlikely to be a major problem for they are familiar changes for freshwaters. Their impacts are likely to be far less severe than the existing impacts brought about by nutrient pollution, acidification, toxic pollution, exotic species introduction, damming, river engineering and drainage. Concerns about climate change should not be swept aside where freshwaters are concerned, but they should be seen in this perspective. And whatever the impacts, approaches to conservation that are specifically community-based rather than restorative of ecosystem function, are likely to be cosmetic, ineffective or even, by providing scapegoats for government, indeed counterproductive. The biodiversity icons of the rain forest and coral reef provide inappropriate models for freshwater conservation and the natural historian could even be a dangerous beast!



11.45 - 12.15
CRONE, ELIZABETH E., Karen D. Holl and Michael Loik. Wildlife Biology, School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula MT 59802 USA <ecrone@forestry.umt.edu> (EC), Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz CA 95064 USA (KDH & ML)

WHEN SHOULD WE LINK CLIMATE CHANGE AND ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION?

Human populations have dramatically altered the natural environment through both habitat loss and anthropogenic climate change. In broad terms, numerous surveys conclude that habitat loss is the single greatest cause of recent species endangerment and extinction. Because extinctions lag behind habitat destruction, remaining habitat is almost certainly insufficient to protect all current levels of biodiversity, even under current climate conditions. Thus, a global need for habitat restoration is clear; however, specific recommendations for how and where to restore remain elusive. Similarly, although quantitative predictions vary, increased levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are likely to result in a 1.5 to 4.5iC increase in global air temperatures, and many ecosystems will experience altered precipitation. However, predictive climate models contain little local-to-regional detail, and specific predictions are highly uncertain. Given clear, broad trends in both habitat loss and climate change, but high uncertainty at the scales of land management, can we effectively use restoration to mitigate climate change, or use climate change predictions to improve ecosystem management and restoration? We discuss feedback between restoration and climate change for terrestrial ecosystems in general, with examples of our research restoring riparian forest along managed rivers in California and tropical forest in Costa Rica.