species redistribution

Large wildfires in the Southwest U.S., combined with climate changes, are creating an ideal situation for ecosystem transitions, producing challenges for conserving species, according to a new report by the National Wildlif

Ecosystems are more stressed today than at any comparable period in human history due to the impacts of climate change on species’ geographical ranges and distributions.  Furthermore, climate change exacerbates problems associated with other environmental stressors such as land use change.

Climate change will weaken the “insurance effect” that biodiversity has on ecosystems, rendering them less able to adapt to a changing environment, according to a new study in Ecology Letters.

Climate change impacts on landscapes will force many species and ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin, including piñon and juniper woodlands, to migrate to find new suitable habitat by the end of the century.

Across the Western Hemisphere, 9.2 percent of mammals on average will potentially be unable to keep pace with climate change, and in some areas this could be as high as 39 percent, according to a recent study published in PNAS.

The Sonoran Desert may look very different under hotter and drier conditions in the future, reports a recent study in Global Change Biology.

Abundances of deciduous trees, and songbirds that live in the trees, have declined over the past 22 years in montane Arizona due to decreasing snowpack.

Posted by Melissa Lamberton | on January 19, 2012
In the Southwest, a plant's citizenship status often determines its fate. Conservationists work to keep invasive species at bay with chainsaws and chemicals even as climate change begins to turn ecosystems into jigsaw puzzles. As global temperatures rise and precipitation patterns shift, native and exotic species alike head for new locations. Bethany Bradley, a biogeographer at the University of Massachusetts, has a novel suggestion: Make climate change an ally in our efforts to restore the damage caused by invasive species.

Scientists find that over the last 65 million years, waves of diversity in North American mammal species were profoundly influenced by changes in temperature.

A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society documents 41 long-distance migrations in the western U.S. that are in peril due to changes in climate and land-use.