Assessing the Risks and Opportunities for Species in England as a Result of Climate Change

Context

There is an increasing need for conservation organisations to target their actions to help species that are being affected by climate change. Some species which are currently threatened may benefit from climate change, whilst others not currently regarded as being of conservation concern may face new threats. Earlier work developed a framework to assess the risks and benefits that climate change poses to species and this project brings together a wide team to apply the framework to a wide range of English species. Work at York focusses on modelling the distributions and likely changes in over 4000 English plant and animal species.

Aims and Objectives

The work will output a list of species likely to be at high risk of climate-related decline and species likely to benefit from climate change, allowing conservation action to be prioritised accordingly. Outputs can also be used to broadly identify the types of adaptation action which different species may require (e.g. increased habitat availability in future range, in situ conservation in current range). For a subset of species, a second decision framework to help identify the most appropriate actions will be applied, and combined with knowledge about species ecology and requirements in order to provide detailed management guidance for practitioners. To find out more visit the project website.

Project activities and publications

Andrew J. Suggitt, Robert J. Wilson, Nick J. B. Isaac, Colin M. Beale, Alistair G. Auffret, Tom August, Jonathan J. Bennie, Humphrey Q. P. Crick, Simon Duffield, Richard Fox, John J. Hopkins, Nicholas A. Macgregor, Mike D. Morecroft, Kevin J. Walker & Ilya M. D. Maclean, 2018. Extinction risk from climate change is reduced by microclimatic buffering. Nature Climate Change. 8, 713-717.

James W.Pearce-Higgins, Colin M.Beale, Tom H.Oliver, Tom A.August, Matthew Carroll, Dario Massimino, Nancy Ockendon, Joanne Savage, Christopher J.Wheatley, Malcolm A.Ausden, Richard B.Bradbury, Simon J.Duffield, Nicholas A.Macgregor, Colin J.McClean, Michael D.Morecrof, Chris D.Thomas, OllyWatts, Björn C.Beckmann…Humphrey Q.P.Crick, 2017. A national-scale assessment of climate change impacts on species: Assessing the balance of risks and opportunities for multiple taxa. Biological Conservation. 213, 124-134.