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Filters: Contacts: Sarah R Weiskopf (X)

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Abstract (from Environmental Evidence): Background Climate is an important driver of ungulate life-histories, population dynamics, and migratory behaviors, and can affect the growth, development, fecundity, dispersal, and demographic trends of populations. Changes in temperature and precipitation, and resulting shifts in plant phenology, winter severity, drought and wildfire conditions, invasive species distribution and abundance, predation, and disease have the potential to directly or indirectly affect ungulates. However, ungulate responses to climate variability and change are not uniform and vary by species and geography. Here, we present a systematic map protocol aiming to describe the abundance and distribution...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
In 1969, researchers developed the first global circulation model (Ruttiman 2006); however, it was not until 2014 that modelers first attempted a global ecosystem and biodiversity model that included human pressures (i.e., the Madingley Model) (Harfoot et al. 2014). Other large-scale models of biodiversity exist, such as GLOBIO (Alkemade et al. 2009), but to date there are no well accepted global biodiversity models similar to global circulation models that can help guide global biodiversity policy development and targets. The lack of global biodiversity models compared to the extensive array of general circulation models provides a unique opportunity for climate, ecosystem, and biodiversity modeling experts to...
Key Messages: 1. Ecosystem functions and the services they provide to people can support climate adaptation efforts. 2. A systems perspective that includes ecosystem services could contribute to the CASC research agenda in three interrelated ways: they can directly benefit current CASC stakeholder goals, they can provide co-benefits to CASC stakeholders, and they allow for full-benefit accounting of the impacts of choices made by natural resource managers. 3. Some existing CASC research aligns well with an ecosystem services framing and could be enhanced by understanding how the components fit into a broader multi-objective context. Notable bright spots for research in these dimensions concern coastal resilience...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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This database contains documented observations of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in urban areas globally published between 2006 and June 2023. We systematically reviewed publications from Web of Science. To be included, studies needed to explicitly assess how at least one metric of biodiversity related to at least one ecosystem function and must have been conducted in an urban setting (as defined by the study author). We only included studies that explicitly assessed correlations between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning or tested cause/effect models or experiments. We extracted data related to basic study information and methodology, and the ecosystem function assessed, focal...
The proportion of people living in urban areas is growing globally. Understanding how to manage urban biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services is becoming more important. Biodiversity can increase ecosystem functioning in non-urban systems. However, few studies have reviewed the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in urban areas, which differ in species compositions, abiotic environments, food webs, and turnover rates. We reviewed evidence of biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships in urban environments and assessed factors that influence the relationship direction. Based on 70 studies, relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning were more positive...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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As our world changes and communities are faced with uncertain future climate conditions, decision making and resource planning efforts can often no longer rely on historic scientific data alone. Scientific projections of what might be expected in the future are increasingly needed across the country and around the world. Scientists and researchers can develop these projections by using computer models to simulate complex elements of our climate and their interactions with ecosystems, wildlife, and biodiversity. While an extensive array of general circulation models (GCMs, climate models of the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean) exist, there is currently a lack of global biodiversity models. This project...
Natural ecosystems store large amounts of carbon globally, as organisms absorb carbon from the atmosphere to build large, long-lasting, or slow-decaying structures such as tree bark or root systems. An ecosystem’s carbon sequestration potential is tightly linked to its biological diversity. Yet when considering future projections, many carbon sequestration models fail to account for the role biodiversity plays in carbon storage. Here, we assess the consequences of plant biodiversity loss for carbon storage under multiple climate and land-use change scenarios. We link a macroecological model projecting changes in vascular plant richness under different scenarios with empirical data on relationships between biodiversity...
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Ungulates, or hoofed mammals such as elk, deer, and moose, occupy a diversity of habitats across North America, from Canada’s high arctic to the deserts of Mexico. Ungulates play an important ecological role, helping to regulate processes such as nutrient cycling in forests and grasslands, through their grazing activities. They are also economically and culturally important, providing recreational and subsistence hunting opportunities and non-consumptive, aesthetic values. Yet throughout their range, ungulates face numerous anthropogenic and environmental threats that have the potential to impact populations and their ability to move across the landscape. Of these threats, an improved understanding of the effects...
Abstract (from Environmental Modelling & Software): Models help decision-makers anticipate the consequences of policies for ecosystems and people; for instance, improving our ability to represent interactions between human activities and ecological systems is essential to identify pathways to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. However, use of modeling outputs in decision-making remains uncommon. We share insights from a multidisciplinary National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center working group on technical, communication, and process-related factors that facilitate or hamper uptake of model results. We emphasize that it is not simply technical model improvements, but active and iterative stakeholder...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
Abstract (from BioScience): Global biodiversity and ecosystem service models typically operate independently. Ecosystem service projections may therefore be overly optimistic because they do not always account for the role of biodiversity in maintaining ecological functions. We review models used in recent global model intercomparison projects and develop a novel model integration framework to more fully account for the role of biodiversity in ecosystem function, a key gap for linking biodiversity changes to ecosystem services. We propose two integration pathways. The first uses empirical data on biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships to bridge biodiversity and ecosystem function models and could currently...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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Madagascar, a country rich in natural capital and biodiversity but with high levels of poverty, food insecurity, and population growth, faces a number of development challenges, including obtaining sustained financial support from external sources and building internal capacity to address the poor environmental, health, and socio-economic conditions. Climate change poses an increasing threat to achieving development goals and is usually considered in development plans and project designs. However, there have been numerous challenges in the effective implementation of those plans, particularly in the sustained engagement of the communities to undertake adaptive actions but also due to insufficient scientific information...
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Climate change represents one of the foremost drivers of ecological change, yet its documented impacts on biodiversity remain uncertain and complex. Although there have been many published studies on species shifting their geographic ranges in response to climate change, it is still challenging to identify the specific mechanisms and conditions that facilitate range shifts in some species and not in others. In addition, it can be difficult to disentangle climate-induced range shifts from other environmental changes which can also result in range shifts (such as changes to land use or habitat). This project attempts to address these knowledge gaps by conducting a systematic literature review of documented cases of...
Abstract (from Ecology and Society): Climate change poses an increasing threat to achieving development goals and is often considered in development plans and project designs. However, there have been challenges in the effective implementation of those plans, particularly in the sustained engagement of the communities to undertake adaptive actions, but also due to insufficient scientific information to inform management decisions. Madagascar is a country rich in natural capital and biodiversity but with high levels of poverty, food insecurity, population growth, and exploitation of natural resources. The country faces development and environmental challenges that may be intensified by climate change. The objective...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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This dataset contains information from 674 publications (academic and grey literature) that assessed the effects of climate variability and climate change on the 15 ungulate species that are native to the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Greenland. The publication contains literature published between 1947 and September 2020. Information documented includes study location, climate variables assessed, and ungulate outcomes measured (e.g., life history characteristics, population demographics, migratory behavior).
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Species across North America are being impacted by changing climate conditions. Plants and animals can respond to these changes in a variety of ways, including by shifting their geographic distributions. Determining whether or not observed biological changes, such as range shifts, are indeed the result of climate change is a key challenge facing natural resource managers and requires clarifying which areas have experienced detectable and significant changes in climate variables (such as monthly mean temperature or extreme precipitation). The objective of this study is to identify areas across North America that have (or have not) experienced detectable changes in ecologically-relevant climate variables. The overall...
Abstract (from Bioscience): Biodiversity projections with uncertainty estimates under different climate, land-use, and policy scenarios are essential to setting and achieving international targets to mitigate biodiversity loss. Evaluating and improving biodiversity predictions to better inform policy decisions remains a central conservation goal and challenge. A comprehensive strategy to evaluate and reduce uncertainty of model outputs against observed measurements and multiple models would help to produce more robust biodiversity predictions. We propose an approach that integrates biodiversity models and emerging remote sensing and in-situ data streams to evaluate and reduce uncertainty with the goal of improving...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
The geographic redistributions of species due to a rapidly changing climate are poised to perturb ecological communities and significantly impact ecosystems and human livelihoods. Effectively managing these biological impacts requires a thorough understanding of the patterns and processes of species geographic range shifts. While substantial recent redistributions have been identified and recognized to vary by taxon, region, and range geometry, there are large gaps and biases in the available evidence. Here, we use the largest compilation of geographic range change observations to date, comprised of 33,016 potential redistributions across 12,009 species, to formally assess within- and cross-species coverage and...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
Among the most widely predicted climate change-related impacts to biodiversity are geographic range shifts, whereby species shift their spatial distribution to track their climate niches. A series of commonly articulated hypotheses have emerged in the scientific literature suggesting species are expected to shift their distributions to higher latitudes, greater elevations, and deeper depths in response to rising temperatures associated with climate change. Yet, many species are not demonstrating range shifts consistent with these expectations. Here, we evaluate the impact of anthropogenic climate change (specifically, changes in temperature and precipitation) on species’ ranges, and assess whether expected range...
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Carbon sequestration and biodiversity are tightly linked, but many models projecting carbon storage change do not account for the role biodiversity plays in the sequestration capacity of terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we link a macroecological model projecting changes in vascular plant richness with empirical biodiversity-biomass stock relationships, to assess the consequences of plant biodiversity loss for carbon storage under multiple climate and land-use change scenarios. Data presented here include global raster files of plant species loss by ecoregion, biomass loss by ecoregion, and carbon loss by ecoregion. Estimates are what is expected over the long term, when ecosystems approach their new equilibrium states,...
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The CoRE (Contractions or Range Expansions) database contains a library of published literature and data on species range shifts in response to climate change. Through a systematic review of publications returned from searches on Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus, we selected primary research articles that documented or attempted to document species-level distribution shifts in animal or plant species in response to recent anthropogenic climate change. We extracted data in four broad categories: (i) basic study information (study duration, location, data quality and methodological factors); (ii) basic species information (scientific names and taxonomic groups); (iii) information on the observed range shifts...
map background search result map search result map Workshops and Collaborations to Improve Biodiversity and Climate Modeling Understanding Species' Range Shifts in Response to Climate Change: Results from a Systematic National Review Understanding Changing Climate Variables to Clarify Species’ Exposure and Responses to Changing Environments across North America Understanding the Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Ungulates in North America A Climate Risk Management Screening and Assessment Review for Madagascar’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy Catalogue of the literature assessing climate effects on ungulates in North America (1947-2020) A Climate Risk Management Screening and Assessment Review for Madagascar’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy Understanding the Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Ungulates in North America Catalogue of the literature assessing climate effects on ungulates in North America (1947-2020) Understanding Species' Range Shifts in Response to Climate Change: Results from a Systematic National Review Understanding Changing Climate Variables to Clarify Species’ Exposure and Responses to Changing Environments across North America Workshops and Collaborations to Improve Biodiversity and Climate Modeling