Skip to main content

Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate

Human-induced climate change is emerging as one of the gravest threats to biodiversity in history, and while a vast amount of literature on the ecological impact of climate change exists, very little has been dedicated to the management of wildlife populations and communities in the wake of unprecedented habitat changes. Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate is an essential resource, bringing together leaders in the fields of climate change ecology, wildlife population dynamics, and environmental policy to examine the impacts of climate change on populations of terrestrial vertebrates. Chapters assess the details of climate change ecology, including demographic implications for individual populations, evolutionary responses, impacts on movement patterns, alterations of species interactions, and predicting impacts across regions. The contributors also present a number of strategies by which conservationists and wildlife managers can counter or mitigate the impacts of climate change as well as increase the resilience of wildlife populations to such changes. A seminal contribution to the fields of ecology and conservation biology, Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate will serve as the spark that ignites a new direction of discussions about and action on the ecology and conservation of wildlife in a changing climate.


416 pages | 35 halftones, 37 line drawings, 16 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2012

Biological Sciences: Conservation, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology

Reviews

“With research and practice quickly rising to the new challenges posed by climate change, any synthesis of this field is a moving target. Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate provides an admirable cross-section of this growing body of work. The authors should be congratulated for tackling a subject that is complex, multifaceted, and rapidly advancing.”

Ecology

“Recommended.”

F. Huettmann, University of Alaska | Choice

 “Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate provides an important, cutting-edge, and forward-looking contribution toward our understanding of climate effects on wildlife species. Much of our current understanding in this field is largely a sketch of macroecological patterns and inferences. This book takes us a long step forward by filling in the sketchy understanding with detailed and nuanced biological information, not only about species-habitat associations, but also about species’ potential to adapt or migrate and the consequences for whole ecosystem structure and functioning. The book’s strength is that it is a compendium of work by both academic scientists and front-line conservation practitioners who are wrestling with ideas and practical ways to conserve wildlife in the face of changing climate. These essays set the standard for providing scientific insights for the practice of wildlife conservation in an era of changing climate.”

Oswald Schmitz, Yale University

Table of Contents

1
Climate Change and Wildlife Conservation
 Jedediah F. Brodie, Eric S. Post, and Daniel F. Doak
 
 
Part 1      Assessing and Predicting Climate Change Impact on Wildlife
 
2
Recent and Future Climatic Change and Its Potential Implications for Species and Ecosystems
 Karen Carney, Brian Lazar, Charles Rodgers, Diana R. Lane, Russell
 Jones, Scott Morlando, and Allison E. Ebbets
 
3
Natural Selection and Phenotypic Plasticity in Wildlife Adaptation to Climate Change
 James D. Austin, Christine W. Miller and Robert J. Fletcher, Jr.
 
4
Demographic Approaches to Assessing Climate Change Impact: An Application to Pond-Breeding Frogs and Shifting Hydropatterns
 John H. Matthews, W. Chris Funk, and Cameron Ghalambor
 
5
Modeling Range Shifts for Invasive Vertebrates in Response to Climate Change
 Damien A. Fordham, H. Resit Akçakaya, Miguel Araújo, and Barry W.
 Brook
 
6
Can We Predict Climate-Driven Changes to Disease Dynamics? Applications for Theory and Management in the Face of Uncertainty
 Sara H. Paull and Pieter T.J. Johnson
 
7
Rapid Assessment of Plant and Animal Vulnerability to Climate Change
 Bruce E. Young, Kimberly R. Hall, Elizabeth Byers, Kelly Gravuer,
 Geoff Hammerson, Alan Redder, and Kristin Szabo
 
 
Part 2       Case Studies of Climatic Effects on Wildlife Conservation
 
8
Changing Rainfall and Obstructed Movements: Impact on African Ungulates
 Norman Owen-Smith and Joseph O. Ogutu
 
9
Ecological Effects of Climate Change on European Reptiles
 Jean François Le Galliard, Manuel Massot, Jean-Pierre Baron, and Jean
 Clobert
 
10
Arctic Shorebirds: Conservation of a Moving Target in Changing Times
 Steve Zack and Joe Liebezeit
 
11
Island Species with Nowhere to Go
 Lisa Manne
 
12
Retreat of the American Pika: Up the Mountain or into the Void?
 Chris Ray, Erik Beever, and Scott Loarie
 
13
Sensitivity of High Arctic Caribou Population Dynamics to Changes in the Frequency of Extreme Weather Events
 Joerg Tews, Rebecca Jeppesen, and Carolyn Callaghan
 
 
Part 3       Promoting Resilience: Wildlife Management in the Face of Climate Change
 
14
Harvest Models for Changing Environments
 Mark S. Boyce, Kyle Knopff, Joseph Northrup, Justin Pitt, and Liv S.
 Vors
 
15
From Connect-the-Dots to Dynamic Networks: Maintaining and Enhancing Connectivity as a Strategy to Address Climate Change Impacts on Wildlife
 Molly S. Cross, Jodi A. Hilty, Gary M. Tabor, Joshua J. Lawler, Lisa J.
 Graumlich, and Joel Berger
 
16
Restoring Predators as a Hedge against Climate Change
 Chris C. Wilmers, Chris T. Darimont and Mark Hebblewhite
 
17
Assisted Colonization of Wildlife Species at Risk from Climate Change
 Viorel D. Popescu and Malcolm L. Hunter, Jr.
 
18
The Integration of Forest Science and Climate Change Policy to Safeguard Biodiversity in a Changing Climate
 Nicholas Blay and Michael Dombeck
 
 
Concluding Remarks
 
19
What to Expect and How to Plan for Wildlife Conservation in the Face of Climate Change
 Daniel F. Doak, Jedediah F. Brodie, and Eric S. Post
 

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press