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Dispersal will limit ability of mammals to track climate change in the Western Hemisphere
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As they have in response to past climatic changes, many species will shift their distributions in response to modern climate change. However, due to the unprecedented rapidity of projected climatic changes, some species may not be able to move their ranges fast enough to track shifts in suitable climates and associated habitats. Here, we investigate the ability of 493 mammals to keep pace with projected climatic changes in the Western Hemisphere. We modeled the velocities at which species will likely need to move to keep pace with projected changes in suitable climates. We compared these velocities with the velocities at which species are able to move as a function of dispersal distances and dispersal frequencies. Across the Western Hemisphere, on average, 9.2% of mammals at a given location will likely be unable to keep pace with climate change. In some places, up to 39% of mammals may be unable to track shifts in suitable climates. Eighty-seven percent of mammalian species are expected to experience reductions in range size and 20% of these range reductions will likely be due to limited dispersal abilities as opposed to reductions in the area of suitable climate. Because climate change will likely outpace the response capacity of many mammals, mammalian vulnerability to climate change may be more extensive than previously anticipated.
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Clone history shapes Populus drought responses
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Just as animal monozygotic twins can experience different environmental conditions by being reared apart, individual genetically identical trees of the genus Populus can also be exposed to contrasting environmental conditions by being grown in different locations. As such, clonally propagated Populus trees provide an opportunity to interrogate the impact of individual environmental history on current response to environmental stimuli. To test the hypothesis that current responses to an environmental stimulus, drought, are contingent on environmental history, the transcriptome- level drought responses of three economically important hybrid genotypes—DN34 (Populus deltoides × Populus nigra), Walker [P. deltoides var. occidentalis × (Populus laurifolia × P. nigra)], and Okanese [Walker × (P. laurifolia × P. nigra)]—derived from two different locations were compared. Strikingly, differences in transcript abundance patterns in response to drought were based on differences in geographic origin of clones for two of the three genotypes. This observation was most pronounced for the genotypes with the longest time since establishment and last common propagation. Differences in genome-wide DNA methylation paralleled the transcriptome level trends, whereby the clones with the most divergent transcriptomes and clone history had the most marked differences in the extent of total DNA methylation, suggesting an epigenomic basis for the clone history-dependent transcriptome divergence. The data provide insights into the interplay between genotype and environment in the ecologically and economically important Populus genus, with implications for the industrial application of Populus trees and the evolution and persistence of these important tree species and their associated hybrids.
epigenetics | forest trees | poplar
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Molecular study of worldwide distribution and diversity of soil animals
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The global distribution of soil animals and the relationship of below-ground biodiversity to above-ground biodiversity are not well understood. We examined 17,516 environmental 18S rRNA gene sequences representing 20 phyla of soil animals sampled from 11 locations covering a range of biomes and latitudes around the world. No globally cosmopolitan taxa were found and only 14 of 2,259 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) found were common to four or more locations. Half of those were circumpolar and may reflect higher connectivity among circumpolar locations compared with other locations in the study. Even when OTU assembly criteria were relaxed to approximate the family taxo- nomic level, only 34 OTUs were common to four or more locations. A comparison of our diversity and community structure data to environmental factors suggests that below-ground animal diver- sity may be inversely related to above-ground biodiversity. Our data suggest that greater soil inorganic N and lower pH could explain the low below-ground biodiversity found at locations of high above-ground biodiversity. Our locations could also be characterized as being dominated by microarthropods or domi- nated by nematodes. Locations dominated by arthropods were primarily forests with lower soil pH, root biomass, mean annual temperature, low soil inorganic N and higher C:N, litter and moisture compared with nematode-dominated locations, which were mostly grasslands. Overall, our data indicate that small soil animals have distinct biogeographical distributions and provide unique evidence of the link between above-ground and below- ground biodiversity at a global scale.
cosmopolitan species | endemism
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Housing growth in and near United States protected areas limits their conservation value
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Protected areas are crucial for biodiversity conservation because they provide safe havens for species threatened by land-use change and resulting habitat loss. However, protected areas are only effective when they stop habitat loss within their boundaries, and are connected via corridors to other wild areas. The effectiveness of protected areas is threatened by development; however, the extent of this threat is unknown. We compiled spatially-detailed housing growth data from 1940 to 2030, and quantified growth for each wilderness area, national park, and national forest in the contermi- nous United States. Our findings show that housing development in the United States may severely limit the ability of protected areas to function as a modern “Noah’s Ark.” Between 1940 and 2000, 28 mil- lion housing units were built within 50 km of protected areas, and 940,000 were built within national forests. Housing growth rates during the 1990s within 1 km of protected areas (20% per decade) outpaced the national average (13%). If long-term trends continue, another 17 million housing units will be built within 50 km of pro- tected areas by 2030 (1 million within 1 km), greatly diminishing their conservation value. US protected areas are increasingly iso- lated, housing development in their surroundings is decreasing their effective size, and national forests are even threatened by habitat loss within their administrative boundaries. Protected areas in the United States are thus threatened similarly to those in developing countries. However, housing growth poses the main threat to protected areas in the United States whereas deforestation is the main threat in developing countries.
conservation threats | effectiveness | parks | reserves
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Flow regime, temperature, and biotic interactions drive differential declines of trout species under climate change
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Broad-scale studies of climate change effects on freshwater species have focused mainly on temperature, ignoring critical drivers such as flow regime and biotic interactions. We use downscaled outputs from general circulation models coupled with a hydrologic model to forecast the effects of altered flows and increased temperatures on four interacting species of trout across the interior western United States (1.01 million km2), based on empirical statistical models built from fish surveys at 9,890 sites. Projections under the 2080s A1B emissions scenario forecast a mean 47% decline in total suitable habitat for all trout, a group of fishes of major socioeconomic and ecological significance. We project that native cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii, already excluded from much of its potential range by nonnative species, will lose a further 58% of habitat due to an increase in temper- atures beyond the species’ physiological optima and continued negative biotic interactions. Habitat for nonnative brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and brown trout Salmo trutta is predicted to decline by 77% and 48%, respectively, driven by increases in temperature and winter flood frequency caused by warmer, rain- ier winters. Habitat for rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, is projected to decline the least (35%) because negative temperature effects are partly offset by flow regime shifts that benefit the species. These results illustrate how drivers other than tempera- ture influence species response to climate change. Despite some uncertainty, large declines in trout habitat are likely, but our find- ings point to opportunities for strategic targeting of mitigation efforts to appropriate stressors and locations.
global change | hydrology | invasive species | niche model | distribution modeling
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Wilderness and biodiversity conservation
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Human pressure threatens many species and ecosystems, so con- servation efforts necessarily prioritize saving them. However, conservation should clearly be proactive wherever possible. In this article, we assess the biodiversity conservation value, and specif- ically the irreplaceability in terms of species endemism, of those of the planet’s ecosystems that remain intact. We find that 24 wil- derness areas, all >1 million hectares, are >70% intact and have human densities of less than or equal to five people per km2. This wilderness covers 44% of all land but is inhabited by only 3% of people. Given this sparse population, wilderness conservation is cost-effective, especially if ecosystem service value is incorporated. Soberingly, however, most wilderness is not speciose: only 18% of plants and 10% of terrestrial vertebrates are endemic to individual wildernesses, the majority restricted to Amazonia, Congo, New Guinea, the Miombo–Mopane woodlands, and the North American deserts. Global conservation strategy must target these five wil- dernesses while continuing to prioritize threatened biodiversity hotspots.
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Responses of wind erosion to climate-induced vegetation changes on the Colorado Plateau
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Projected increases in aridity throughout the southwestern United States due to anthropogenic climate change will likely cause reduc- tions in perennial vegetation cover, which leaves soil surfaces exposed to erosion. Accelerated rates of dust emission from wind erosion have large implications for ecosystems and human well- being, yet there is poor understanding of the sources and magni- tude of dust emission in a hotter and drier climate. Here we use a two-stage approach to compare the susceptibility of grasslands and three different shrublands to wind erosion on the Colorado Plateau and demonstrate how climate can indirectly moderate the magnitude of aeolian sediment flux through different responses of dominant plants in these communities. First, using results from 20 y of vegetation monitoring, we found perennial grass cover in grass- lands declined with increasing mean annual temperature in the previous year, whereas shrub cover in shrublands either showed no change or declined as temperature increased, depending on the species. Second, we used these vegetation monitoring results and measurements of soil stability as inputs into a field-validated wind erosion model and found that declines in perennial vegeta- tion cover coupled with disturbance to biological soil crust resulted in an exponential increase in modeled aeolian sediment flux. Thus the effects of increased temperature on perennial plant cover and the correlation of declining plant cover with increased aeolian flux strongly suggest that sustained drought conditions across the southwest will accelerate the likelihood of dust production in the future on disturbed soil surfaces.
arid ∣ horizontal flux ∣ land use ∣ national park ∣ threshold shear velocity
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Point of No Return :The massive climate threats we must avoid
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The world is quickly reaching a Point of No Return for preventing the worst impacts of climate change. Continuing on the current course will make it difficult, if not impossible, to prevent the widespread and catastrophic impacts of climate change. The costs will be substantial: billions spent to deal with the destruction of extreme weather events, untold human suffering, and the deaths of tens of millions from the impacts by as soon as 2030.
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Global imprint of climate change on marine life
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Past meta-analyses of the response of marine organisms to climate change have examined a limited range of locations1,2, taxonomic groups2–4 and/or biological responses5,6. This has precluded a robust overview of the effect of climate change in the global ocean. Here, we synthesized all available studies of the consistency of marine ecological observations with expectations under climate change. This yielded a meta- database of 1,735 marine biological responses for which either regional or global climate change was considered as a driver. Included were instances of marine taxa responding as expected, in a manner inconsistent with expectations, and taxa demonstrating no response. From this database, 81–83% of all observations for distribution, phenology, community composition, abundance, demography and calcification across taxa and ocean basins were consistent with the expected impacts of climate change. Of the species responding to climate change, rates of distribution shifts were, on average, consistent with those required to track ocean surface temperature changes. Conversely, we did not find a relationship between regional shifts in spring phenology and the seasonality of temperature. Rates of observed shifts in species’ distributions and phenology are comparable to, or greater, than those for terrestrial systems.
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Biotic Drivers of Stream Planform: Implications for Understanding the Past and Restoring the Future
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Traditionally, stream channel planform has been viewed as a function of larger watershed and valley-scale physical variables, including valley slope, the amount of discharge, and sediment size and load. Biotic processes serve a crucial role in transforming channel planform among straight, braided, meandering, and anabranching styles by increasing stream-bank stability and the probability of avulsions, creating stable multithread (anabranching) channels, and affecting sedimentation dynamics. We review the role of riparian vegetation and channel-spanning obstructions—beaver dams and logjams—in altering channel–floodplain dynamics in the southern Rocky Mountains, and we present channel planform scenarios for combinations of vegetation and beaver populations or old-growth forest that control logjam formation. These conceptual models provide understanding of historical planform variability throughout the Holocene and outline the implications for stream restoration or management in broad, low-gradient headwater valleys, which are important for storing sediment, carbon, and nutrients and for supporting a diverse riparian community.
Keywords: stream planform, riparian vegetation, beaver, old-growth forest, restoration
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