Conservation interventions can benefit species impacted by climate change

Bowgen, KM, Kettel, EF ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8555-6195, Butchart, SHM, Carr, JA, Foden, WB, Magin, G, Morecroft, MD, Smith, RK, Stein, BA, Sutherland, WJ, Thaxter, CB and Pearce-Higgins, JW, 2022. Conservation interventions can benefit species impacted by climate change. Biological Conservation, 269: 109524. ISSN 0006-3207

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Abstract

There is an urgent need to quantify the potential for conservation interventions to effectively manage the impacts of climate change on species' populations and ecological communities. In this first quantitative global assessment of biodiversity conservation interventions for climate change adaptation, we identified 77 peer-reviewed studies, including 443 cases describing the response of individual species' populations or assemblages to particular interventions, whilst also accounting for responses to climate change or particular climatic variables. Eighty-two percent of studies were from Europe or North America. In 30% of reported cases, interventions were regarded as beneficial (having a significant positive impact on a population also affected by a climatic variable). However, beneficial outcomes were more likely to be reported when fewer responses were analysed, suggesting a publication bias in the reporting of beneficial responses. Management focused on particular species (e.g. targeted habitat management and species recovery interventions) was modelled to have a higher probability (73%) of being beneficial than more generic interventions such as land and water management (22%) or protection (17%). Although more data on the effectiveness of climate change adaptation for species conservation are required, the diversity of examples reviewed suggests that climate change adaptation can successfully reduce negative impacts of, or enhance positive responses to, climate change. Targeted interventions maximise the persistence of the most vulnerable populations, whilst expanding habitat management and site protection interventions may benefit the largest number of species and ecosystems. The effective monitoring and evaluation of adaptation interventions is required to improve this evidence-base for future decision-making.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Biological Conservation
Creators:	Bowgen, K.M., Kettel, E.F., Butchart, S.H.M., Carr, J.A., Foden, W.B., Magin, G., Morecroft, M.D., Smith, R.K., Stein, B.A., Sutherland, W.J., Thaxter, C.B. and Pearce-Higgins, J.W.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	May 2022
Volume:	269
ISSN:	0006-3207
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109524 DOI S0006320722000775 Publisher Item Identifier 1534829 Other
Rights:	© 2022 the authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	10 May 2022 09:57
Last Modified:	10 May 2022 09:57
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46291

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