11.4: Managing Species Sensitive to Climate Change

Earth’s temperature is well on its way to exceed the 2°C increase cap set by global authorities in 2016 (Paris Agreement, Section 12.2.1). Many species that need to adapt to these changes are unable to do so, either because of their limited dispersal capabilities or because of human-induced habitat fragmentation (Section 6.3.5). Others that can disperse may risk decoupling of important symbiotic relationships, as the species involved may not disperse at the same speed, or the same distance (Section 6.3.2). While slowing habitat loss could slow the overall impacts of climate change (Section 10.4), preventing the extinction of many climate-sensitive species will require a range of pro-active conservation management strategies that allow species to adapt at their own pace as and when needed.

Preventing the extinction of climate-sensitive species will require a range of pro-active conservation strategies that allow those species to adapt at their own pace as and when needed.

One of the most important strategies for protecting climate-sensitive species is to identify and protect their likely future habitats. This task of predicting where suitable habitats may be found in future is generally accomplished by identifying and projecting a species’ climatic niche (or bioclimatic envelope) using species distribution models (SDM, Pearson and Dawson, 2003). Section 11.1.1 described how SDM use location data overlaid onto environmental variables to estimate a species’ environmental niche, and how this information can then be used to predict where else a species may occur in a landscape. A similar strategy is followed when predicting a species’ future climate-adapted range. Here, location data are overlaid onto present-day climate variables (e.g. average temperature and rainfall) to define the species’ climatic niche; these niche limits are then projected onto the landscape of interest using future climate scenarios (Section 6.2). Much effort has also been made in recent years to incorporate aspects, such as physiology (Kearney and Porter, 2009) and biological interactions (e.g. Araújo and Luoto, 2007), in predicting future ranges.

Once future ranges have been identified, the next task is to recognize and protect/restore critical dispersal pathways (Section 11.3). While a general strategy of increasing ecosystem-wide connectivity will certainty also benefit climate-sensitive species, conservationists could specifically target climate adaption, by maintaining and restoring climate corridors—dispersal pathways between the current and future ranges (Mawdsley et al., 2009). Several efforts (e.g. Williams et al., 2005; Phillips et al., 2008; Ayebare et al., 2013) are currently underway to establish and protect species-specific and community-specific climate corridors, as predicted using advanced distribution modelling techniques. These and other studies have shown that likely climate corridors often include north–south river valleys, ridges, and coastlines to facilitate poleward distribution shifts, while habitat linkages that cross gradients of elevation, rainfall, and soil types will help climate adaptation across more complex landscapes.

Species with dispersal limitations and specialised interactions may not always benefit from increased connectivity. Instead, those species may rely on climate refuges—areas that are resilient to climate change and thus able to continue to support climate-sensitive communities in future. Africa offers two good examples that illustrate how climate refuges can be identified. The first study, on South African birds, identified climate refuges as areas where temperatures seldom rise above the threshold known to negatively impact a specific species’ fitness (Cunningham et al., 2013). The second study, on northern Mozambique’s coral reefs (McClanahan and Muthiga, 2017), identified two kinds of climate refuges: (a) areas where temperatures never reached a point where it would kill the corals, and (b) areas situated in deeper and cooler water but with the full spectrum of light, which allowed corals to thrive while avoiding heat stress. Both these studies highlight why protecting and restoring complex natural ecosystems (see also Betts et al. 2018) is so important for climate change mitigation.

Climate-sensitive species that are dispersal-limited may not benefit from increased connectivity. Instead, they will rely on climate refuges—areas that are resilient to climate change.

Assisted colonisation is an alternative conservation strategy to save species with dispersal limitations and specialised interactions. Also called assisted migration, assisted colonisation involves the pro-active translocation of climate-sensitive species from their present ranges to their future ranges. Sometimes, even species able to self-disperse may require assisted colonisation. For example, African penguins (Spheniscus demersus, EN) are currently undergoing population declines because of climate change-induced shifts in fish populations on which they depend for food (Sherley et al., 2017). To re-establish this important biological interaction, conservationists are currently using assisted colonisation to establish two new penguin colonies further east from existing colonies (Birdlife South Africa, 2019), in an area where fish populations have remained healthy (Figure 11.12).

Figure 11.12 BirdLife South Africa, in partnership with CapeNature, are introducing rehabilitated African penguins to two new sites several hundred kilometres east of existing colonies. The hope is that the translocated penguins will establishing colonies that is buffered from the negative effects of climate change and fluctuating fish populations. Here members of the public are witnessing the first releases. Photograph by Michael Bridgeford, CC BY 4.0.

As with any translocation project, introducing climate-sensitive species to new areas carries significant risks, including decoupling them from critical limiting resources and symbiotic relationships. It is thus imperative to start small, by translocating only a few well-monitored individuals. If monitoring shows that the initial releases were successful, one can then plan for further releases over time. Because this strategy is still new, it is also important to disseminate your experiences to the broader conservation community, for example by presenting results at conferences or in scientific journals.