Authors: Suzanne M Prober Kevin R Thiele Philip W Rundel Colin J Yates Sandra L Berry Margaret Byrne Les Christidis Carl R Gosper Pauline F Grierson Kristina Lemson Tom Lyons Craig Macfarlane Michael H O’Connor John K Scott Rachel J Standish William D Stock Eddie J B van Etten Grant W WardellJohnson Alexander Watson
Publish Date: 2011/06/21
Volume: 110, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 227-248
Abstract
The importance of ecological management for reducing the vulnerability of biodiversity to climate change is increasingly recognized yet frameworks to facilitate a structured approach to climate adaptation management are lacking We developed a conceptual framework that can guide identification of climate change impacts and adaptive management options in a given region or biome The framework focuses on potential points of early climate change impact and organizes these along two main axes First it recognizes that climate change can act at a range of ecological scales Secondly it emphasizes that outcomes are dependent on two potentially interacting and countervailing forces 1 changes to environmental parameters and ecological processes brought about by climate change and 2 responses of component systems as determined by attributes of resistance and resilience Through this structure the framework draws together a broad range of ecological concepts with a novel emphasis on attributes of resistance and resilience that can temper the response of species ecosystems and landscapes to climate change We applied the framework to the world’s largest remaining Mediterraneanclimate woodland the ‘Great Western Woodlands’ of southwestern Australia In this relatively intact region maintaining inherent resistance and resilience by preventing anthropogenic degradation is of highest priority and lowest risk Limited higher risk options such as fire management protection of refugia and translocation of adaptive genes may be justifiable under more extreme change hence our capacity to predict the extent of change strongly impinges on such management decisions These conclusions may contrast with similar analyses in degraded landscapes where natural integrity is already compromised and existing investment in restoration may facilitate experimentation with higher risk options
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