Climate Change and Protected Areas: How well do British Rare Bryophytes Fare?

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511779701.021

20 - Climate Change and Protected Areas: How well do British Rare Bryophytes Fare?

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2012

Barbara J. Anderson and

Edited by

Nancy G. Slack and

Barbara J. Anderson: Affiliation:
Biology Department University of York, UK
Ralf Ohlemüller: Affiliation:
Durham University, UK
Nancy G. Slack: Affiliation:
Sage Colleges, New York
Lloyd R. Stark: Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is affecting biodiversity (Warren et al. 2001; Hickling et al. 2005; Root et al. 2005; Parmesan 2006; Rosenzweig et al. 2008), and research into appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies is now recognized as being of highest priority (Mitchell et al. 2007; Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2008). As with other taxa, climate change is likely to affect the physiology, population dynamics, and spatial distributions of bryophytes. Climate-induced range shifts have already been reported for many central European bryophyte species (e.g., Frahm & Klaus 1997). Climate is the ultimate driver of species distributions at large spatial (e.g., country) scales. Although some traits of bryophytes might make them less vulnerable to changes in temperature, many species are likely to be substantially affected by changes in humidity-related parameters (Gignac 2001; Bates et al. 2005).

Protected area networks are often established based on well-studied flagship species, and although this is mainly driven by increased computer power and available ecological data, there has been a recent shift towards multi-taxon reserve design (Early & Thomas 2007; Kremen et al. 2008; Franco et al. 2009). In addition, it is increasingly recognized that current conservation networks might not provide suitable protection for species in light of future climate change (e.g., Dockerty et al. 2003; Araújo et al. 2004; Pyke et al. 2005). An area under protective legislation today might be climatically suitable for an endangered species but the climatic conditions of that area might dramatically change in the future, making it unsuitable for this species.

Type: Chapter
Information: Bryophyte Ecology and Climate Change , pp. 409 - 426

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511779701.021 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Araújo, M. B., Cabeza, M., Thuiller, W., Hannah, L. & Williams, P. H. (2004). Would climate change drive species out of reserves? An assessment of existing reserve-selection methods. Global Change Biology 10: 1618–26.Google Scholar

Bates, J. W., Thompson, K. & Grime, J. P. (2005). Effects of simulated long-term climatic change on the bryophytes of a limestone grassland community. Global Change Biology 11: 757–69.Google Scholar

Dockerty, T., Lovett, A. & Watkinson, A. (2003). Climate change and nature reserves: examining the potential impacts, with examples from Great Britain. Global Environmental Change 13: 125–35.Google Scholar

Early, R. & Thomas, C. D. (2007). Multispecies conservation planning: identifying landscapes for the conservation of viable populations using local and continental species priorities. Journal of Applied Ecology 44: 253–62.Google Scholar

Eigenbrod, F., Anderson, B. J., Armsworth, P. R.et al. (2009). Ecosystem service benefits of contrasting conservation strategies in a human-dominated region. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 276: 2903–11.Google Scholar

Elith, J., Graham, C. H., Anderson, R. P.et al. (2006). Novel methods improve prediction of species' distributions from occurrence data. Ecography 29: 129–51.Google Scholar

Frahm, J. P. & Klaus, D. (1997). Moose als Indikatoren von Klimafluktuationen in Mitteleuropa. Erdkunde 51: 181–90.Google Scholar

Franco, A. M. A., Anderson, B. J., Roy, D. B.et al. (2009). Surrogacy and persistence in reserve selection: landscape prioritization for multiple taxa in Britain. Journal of Applied Ecology 46: 82–91.Google Scholar

Gaston, K. J., Charman, K., Jackson, S. F.et al. (2006). The ecological effectiveness of protected areas: the United Kingdom. Biological Conservation 132: 76–87.Google Scholar

Gignac, L. D. (2001). Bryophytes as indicators of climate change. Bryologist 104: 410–20.Google Scholar

Guisan, A. & Zimmermann, N. E. (2000). Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological Modelling 135: 147–86.Google Scholar

Hannah, L., Midgley, G., Andelman, S.et al. (2007). Protected area needs in a changing climate. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5: 131–8.Google Scholar

Hickling, R., Roy, D., Hill, J. K. & Thomas, C. D. (2005). A northward shift of range margins in British Odonata. Global Change Biology 11: 502–6.Google Scholar

Hill, M. O., Preston, C. D. & Smith, A. J. E. (1991). Atlas of the Bryophytes of Britain and Ireland: Liverworts (Hepaticae and Anthocerotae), vol. 1. Colchester: Harley Books.

Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Hughes, L., McIntyre, S.et al. (2008). Assisted colonization and rapid climate change. Science 321: 345–6.Google Scholar

,IPCC (2007). Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

,IUCN (2001). IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN.

Kremen, C., Cameron, A., Moilanen, A.et al. (2008). Aligning conservation priorities across taxa in Madagascar with high-resolution planning tools. Science 320: 222–6.Google Scholar

Mitchell, R. J., Morecroft, M. D., Acreman, M.et al. (2007). England Biodiversity Strategy – towards adaptation to climate change. Final report to Defra for contract CRO327. 194 pp.

Parmesan, C. (2006). Ecological and evolutionary responses to recent climate change. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 37: 637–69.Google Scholar

Pearson, R. G., Raxworthy, C. J., Nakamura, M. & Peterson, A. T. (2007). Predicting species' distributions from small numbers of occurrence records: a test case using cryptic geckos in Madagascar. Journal of Biogeography 34: 102–17.Google Scholar

Pyke, C. R., Andelman, S. J. & Midgley, G. (2005). Identifying priority areas for bioclimatic representation under climate change: a case study for Proteaceae in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. Biological Conservation 125: 1–9.Google Scholar

Root, T. L., MacMynowski, D. P., Mastrandrea, M. D. & Schneider, S. H. (2005). Human-modified temperatures induce species changes: joint attribution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102: 7465–9.Google Scholar

Rosenzweig, C., Karoly, D., Vicarelli, M.et al. (2008). Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change. Nature 453: 353–7.Google Scholar

Thuiller, W., Araujo, M. B. & Lavorel, S. (2004). Do we need land-cover data to model species distributions in Europe? Journal of Biogeography 31: 353–61.Google Scholar

Thuiller, W., Lafourcade, B., Engler, R. & Araujo, M. B. (2008). BIOMOD – A platform for ensemble forecasting of species distributions. Ecography 32: 369–73. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2008.05742.xCrossRef Google Scholar

Travis, J. M. J. (2003). Climate change and habitat destruction: a deadly anthropogenic cocktail. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 270: 467–73.Google Scholar

Warren, M. S., Hill, J. K., Thomas, J. A.et al. (2001). Rapid responses of British butterflies to opposing forces of climate and habitat change. Nature 414: 65–9.Google Scholar