Projecting Climate Effects on Birds and Reptiles of the Southwestern United States

We modeled the current and future breeding ranges of seven bird and five reptile species in the Southwestern United States with sets of landscape, biotic (plant), and climatic global circulation model (GCM) variables. For modeling purposes, we used PRISM data to characterize the climate of the Western United States between 1980 and 2009 (baseline for birds) and between 1940 and 2009 (baseline for reptiles). In contrast, we used a pre-selected set of GCMs that are known to be good predictors of southwestern climate (five individual and one ensemble GCM), for the A1B emission scenario, to characterize future climatic conditions in three time periods (2010–39; 2040–69; and, 2070–99). Our modeling approach relied on...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Bird Distributions, Bird Species Count, Birds, National CASC, Other Wildlife, All tags... Plant Species Distributions, Reptile Distributions, Reptile Species Accounts, Southwestern Birds, Southwestern Reptiles, Wildlife and Plants, Fewer tags

Identifying the Vulnerability of Birds and Reptiles to Changes in Climate in the Southwest

Biodiversity is declining worldwide, and this trend could potentially become more severe as climate conditions change. An integral component of proactive adaptive management planning requires forecasts of how changes in climate will affect individual species. This need has been identified my multiple federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service. The goal of this project was to assist land and wildlife managers in anticipating which species are most vulnerable to changes in climate in the Southwest, and how resources can best be invested to facilitate adaptation. Researchers evaluated the current and future breeding ranges...

Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ, Birds, Birds, CA, All tags... CASC, CO, Federal, Multiple, NM, NV, OR, Other Wildlife, Other Wildlife, Projects by Region, Southwest, Southwest, Southwest, Southwest CASC, UT, Wildlife and Plants, Wildlife and Plants, biodiverstiy, birds, birds, climate change, downscale, gcm, management, model, multiple, natureserve, reptiles, reptiles, species distribution, species distribution model, statistical, vulnerability assessment, Fewer tags