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Appendix 2a. Recovery Plans for Federally Listed Species within the AppLCC
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A list of ESA Recovery Plans published for listed species within the AppLCC.
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Resources
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General Resources Holdings
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AppLCC Development and Operations Planning
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Appendix 2b. Federally Listed Species and National Leads
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ESA listed species and the lead USFWS office for each that occurs within AppLCC
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Resources
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General Resources Holdings
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AppLCC Development and Operations Planning
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Are conservation organizations configured for effective adaptation to global change?
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Conservation organizations must adapt to respond to the ecological impacts of global change. Numerous
changes to conservation actions (eg facilitated ecological transitions, managed relocations, or increased corridordevelopment) have been recommended, but some institutional restructuring within organizations may also be needed. Here we discuss the capacity of conservation organizations to adapt to changing environmental
conditions, focusing primarily on public agencies and nonprofits active in land protection and management
in the US. After first reviewing how these organizations anticipate and detect impacts affecting target
species and ecosystems, we then discuss whether they are sufficiently flexible to prepare and respond by reallocating funding, staff, or other resources. We raise new hypotheses about how the configuration of different
organizations enables them to protect particular conservation targets and manage for particular biophysical
changes that require coordinated management actions over different spatial and temporal scales. Finally, we
provide a discussion resource to help conservation organizations assess their capacity to adapt.
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Climate Science Documents
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Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians
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Many scientists argue that we are either entering or in the midst of the sixth great mass extinction. Intense human pressure, both direct and indirect, is having profound effects on natural environ- ments. The amphibians—frogs, salamanders, and caecilians—may be the only major group currently at risk globally. A detailed worldwide assessment and subsequent updates show that one- third or more of the 6,300 species are threatened with extinction. This trend is likely to accelerate because most amphibians occur in the tropics and have small geographic ranges that make them susceptible to extinction. The increasing pressure from habitat destruction and climate change is likely to have major impacts on narrowly adapted and distributed species. We show that salamanders on tropical mountains are particularly at risk. A new and significant threat to amphibians is a virulent, emerging infec- tious disease, chytridiomycosis, which appears to be globally distributed, and its effects may be exacerbated by global warming. This disease, which is caused by a fungal pathogen and implicated in serious declines and extinctions of >200 species of amphibians, poses the greatest threat to biodiversity of any known disease. Our data for frogs in the Sierra Nevada of California show that the fungus is having a devastating impact on native species, already weakened by the effects of pollution and introduced predators. A general message from amphibians is that we may have little time to stave off a potential mass extinction.
chytridiomycosis climate change population declines Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis emerging disease
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Climate Science Documents
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Area–heterogeneity tradeoff and the diversity of ecological communities
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For more than 50 y ecologists have believed that spatial heterogeneity in habitat conditions promotes species richness by increasing opportunities for niche partitioning. However, a recent stochastic model combining the main elements of niche theory and island biogeography theory suggests that environmental heterogeneity has a general unimodal rather than a positive effect on species richness. This result was explained by an inherent tradeoff between environmental heterogeneity and the amount of suitable area available for individual species: for a given area, as heterogeneity increases, the amount of effective area available for individual species decreases, thereby reducing population sizes and increasing the likelihood of stochastic extinctions. Here we provide a comprehensive evaluation of this hypothesis. First we analyze an extensive database of breeding bird distribution in Catalonia and show that patterns of species richness, species abundance, and extinction rates are consistent with the predictions of the area–heterogeneity tradeoff and its proposed mechanisms. We then perform a metaanalysis of heterogeneity–diversity relationships in 54 published datasets and show that empirical data better fit the unimodal pattern predicted by the area–heterogeneity tradeoff than the positive pattern predicted by classic niche theory. Simulations in which species may have variable niche widths along a continuous environmental gradient are consistent with all empirical findings. The area–heterogeneity tradeoff brings a unique perspective to current theories of species diversity and has important implications for biodiversity conservation.
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Bombay Natural History Society
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The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a pan-India wildlife research organization, has been promoting the cause of nature conservation since 1883.
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LP Members
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Organizations Search
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Chucky Madtom Draft Recovery Plan Available for Review
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The Chucky madtom’s recovery now has a road map and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is looking for your input before it is finalized to be sure it gives conservationists the best chance to ensure the rare catfish once again thrives in East Tennessee.
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News & Events
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Citizen Involvement in the U.S. Endangered Species Act
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Data on listed species refute critiques of citizen involvement in the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Climate Change Vulnerability Previous Species Assessments
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The research compiled a compilation of 700 species vulnerability assessments from previous research. Each excel file contains a subset of data from a compilation of scores for these species in the Appalachian LCC.
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Vulnerability
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Climate Change Vulnerability New Species Assessments
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Vulnerability
