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Facilitating adaptation of biodiversity to climate change: a conceptual framework applied to the world’s largest Mediterranean-climate woodland

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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 Mediterranean-climate woodland, the ‘Great Western Woodlands’ of south-western 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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Private Bag 5, PO Wembley, WA, 6913, Australia

    Suzanne M. Prober, Carl R. Gosper, Craig Macfarlane, Michael H. O’Connor & John K. Scott

  2. Department of Environment and Conservation, Science Division, LMB 104, Bentley Delivery Centre, Perth, WA, 6983, Australia

    Kevin R. Thiele, Colin J. Yates, Margaret Byrne & Carl R. Gosper

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Box 951405, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1405, USA

    Philip W. Rundel

  4. Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Sandra L. Berry

  5. National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450, Australia

    Les Christidis

  6. School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Pauline F. Grierson & Rachel J. Standish

  7. Centre for Ecosystem Management, School of Natural Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, 6027, Australia

    Kristina Lemson, William D. Stock & Eddie J. B. van Etten

  8. Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Woodland and Forest Health, School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, South St, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia

    Tom Lyons

  9. Curtin Institute for Biodiversity and Climate, Curtin University, GPO BoxU1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia

    Grant W. Wardell-Johnson

  10. The Wilderness Society, City West Lotteries House, 2 Delhi Street, West Perth, WA, 6005, Australia

    Alexander Watson

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  1. Suzanne M. Prober
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  2. Kevin R. Thiele
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  3. Philip W. Rundel
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  4. Colin J. Yates
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  5. Sandra L. Berry
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  6. Margaret Byrne
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  7. Les Christidis
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  8. Carl R. Gosper
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  9. Pauline F. Grierson
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  10. Kristina Lemson
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  11. Tom Lyons
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  12. Craig Macfarlane
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  13. Michael H. O’Connor
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  14. John K. Scott
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  15. Rachel J. Standish
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  16. William D. Stock
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  17. Eddie J. B. van Etten
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  18. Grant W. Wardell-Johnson
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  19. Alexander Watson
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Correspondence to Suzanne M. Prober.

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Prober, S.M., Thiele, K.R., Rundel, P.W. et al. Facilitating adaptation of biodiversity to climate change: a conceptual framework applied to the world’s largest Mediterranean-climate woodland. Climatic Change 110, 227–248 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0092-y

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