Natural resource managers are confronted with the pressing challenge to develop conservation plans that address complex ecological and societal needs against the backdrop of a rapidly changing climate. Climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) provide valuable information that helps guide management and conservation actions in this regard. An essential component to CCVAs is understanding adaptive capacity, or the ability of a species to cope with or adjust to climate change. However, adaptive capacity is the least understood and evaluated component of CCVAs. This is largely due to a fundamental need for guidance on how to assess adaptive capacity and incorporate this information into conservation planning and decision-making. [...]
Summary
Natural resource managers are confronted with the pressing challenge to develop conservation plans that address complex ecological and societal needs against the backdrop of a rapidly changing climate. Climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) provide valuable information that helps guide management and conservation actions in this regard. An essential component to CCVAs is understanding adaptive capacity, or the ability of a species to cope with or adjust to climate change. However, adaptive capacity is the least understood and evaluated component of CCVAs. This is largely due to a fundamental need for guidance on how to assess adaptive capacity and incorporate this information into conservation planning and decision-making.
To address this need, an international group of scientists and practitioners developed a framework for evaluating adaptive capacity that can be applied to any species or system, with associated guidelines aimed at the natural-resource management community. In this project, researchers will work with state and federal management agencies in the Northwest region to demonstrate and implement the adaptive capacity framework on a diverse array of species. As part of this effort, researchers will evaluate the adaptive capacity of priority or at-risk species and work with state and federal partners to incorporate these results into climate adaptation plans.
This project seeks to integrate information on adaptive capacity into existing and planned climate adaptation efforts in the Northwest region. This work will also support upcoming management and planning efforts, including U.S. Forest Service land management plan revisions, as well as ongoing and planned Species Status Assessments (SSAs), recovery plans, and State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs).
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Old_growth_forest_scenic_DavidPatte_FWS.jpg “Forest Growth. Credit: David Patte - FWS”
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Purpose
Climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) provide valuable information that inform management and conservation actions in response to rapidly changing climate. An essential component of CCVAs is adaptive capacity (AC), or the ability of a species to cope with or adjust to changing climate conditions. However, moving beyond the concept to evaluate species’ AC in practice has been fraught with challenges. As part of a large, international working group, we developed a generalized method for evaluating species' AC with associated guidelines aimed at the broader practitioner community. We will be partnering with management agencies in the Northwest U.S. to support the effective inclusion of AC information in CCVAs and other climate adaptation plans. These partnerships will also support upcoming management and planning efforts, including Forest Service land management plan revisions, which incorporate management actions for specific species of concern.
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Adaptive capacity (AC) is the intrinsic ability of a species to cope with or adjust to changing climate conditions. AC is considered the least understood and evaluated of the three components of climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs). Research and outreach to the broader practitioner community has revealed a fundamental, yet currently unmet, need for guidance on how to assess AC and incorporate that information into conservation planning and decision-making. In response, a large, international working group was formed with the task of improving the operationalization of AC information for natural-resource managers. From this working group, we developed a framework for evaluating species' AC based on a suite of attributes (or traits) that can be applied to any taxon (e.g., plants, animals, invertebrates, etc.). We propose to demonstrate the utility of our AC framework in cooperation with management agencies in the U.S. Northwest at multiple spatial scales and across diverse taxonomies, encompassing situations with varying data availability and management implications. This includes critical ground-testing in close partnership with ongoing and planned CCVAs by project partners. Our specific objectives are to: (1) conduct a regional evaluation of AC for priority, or at-risk, northwestern species that were previously included in a climate sensitivity assessment; and (2) co-produce a CCVA and adaptation plan for Siuslaw National Forest (Oregon) with natural-resource managers and the science team of Adaptation Partners, with great consideration of the implications for upcoming Northwest Forest Plan revisions. Our AC assessment framework will be developed into a tool to be stored on the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) website. We will make our case study results available through open access publications and agency technical reports.