A 2007 report on the effects of climate change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that the consequences of global temperature shifts for species and people are potentially dire:

In fact, the IPCC says climate change is already causing:

• Coral bleaching;
• Vegetation shifts in tropical, temperate, and boreal ecosystems;
• Flooding from rising seas;
• Changes in (a) the timing of natural events during the year (such as earlier spring flowering in temperate ecosystems) and (b) changes in animal behavior (such as bird migration times); and
• Damage to human well-being.

The Nature Conservancy continues to work to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. And we believe that the world can still avoid the most drastic impacts of climate change by reducing these emissions through energy efficiency and conservation.

But the Conservancy is also working to help ecosystems cope with present and future warming, as well as the other impacts of climate change. From prescribed burning of grasslands to propagating heat-resistant coral, the Conservancy has made adaptation to climate change a crucial part of its conservation strategy.

A Cause for Hope and Warning

Conservancy scientists believe that adaptation will prove to be a viable strategy for combating the effects of climate change. It has already been an effective approach to environmental challenges such as deforestation, urbanization, dams, floods, severe storms, and other threats to intact ecosystems and human well-being.

But climate change is accelerating ecosystem change at a faster rate than the natural dispersal and evolution of many plant and animal species. One result: Scientists are having a hard time keeping up.

“Our actions can help ecosystems and species cope with warmer temperatures,” says Patrick Gonzalez, scientist in the Nature Conservancy Global Climate Change Initiative and an expert reviewer for the latest IPCC report. “But the global magnitude of climate change can overwhelm the resilience of even the most adaptable plants and animals.”

And it isn’t just plants and animals that must face the challenges of adapting to climate change. According to the IPCC report:

• In the next two to three decades climate change could deprive up to one-and-a-half billion people of adequate drinking water.
• Climate change has already degraded land and decreased agricultural yields in Africa and increased the acidity of oceans important for marine fisheries.

These severe impacts on human populations makes the Conservancy’s work to improve the availability of clean water, control soil erosion, and to develop sustainable forestry practices and other ecosystem services even more important in a warming climate.

While the consequences of a warming planet are indeed dire, Gonzalez still sees reasons to be hopeful.

“Global and personal action have enabled the world to reduce the ozone hole, make peace among nations in conflict, and confront other serious threats to our world,” he notes. “We have the means to stop global warming—we are now developing the will.”

Adapting to Change

Conservancy scientists are developing adaptation strategies to help improve the resilience of ecosystems. These strategies can occur (a) at a broad “landscape scale,” that include several existing conservation areas, and (b) at a site level scale, where land and water management actions are used to help ecosystems adapt to climate change.

Our potential strategies at a “landscape scale” include:

• The acquisition of new conservation lands in areas that are still relatively unaltered by climate change;
• The establishment and maintenance of conservation corridors; and
• Managing lands based on habitat type in addition to conserving unique sites with fixed borders.
  

Potential Strategies for site-level land- and water management include:

• Prescribed burning of vulnerable forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire;
• Reforestation of native riparian tree species to shade streams to keep water cool for fish;
• Planting food sources for migratory birds and other species that depend on a specific timing of plant growth; and
• The propagation and transplantation of heat-resistant coral.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Scott Warren/TNC (Clear cut of native Cerrado at Taquari watershed, Brazil); Photo © Craig Quirolo/Reef Relief (coal bleaching in the Florida Keys);Jennifer E. Hanman/TNC (North Carolina's Albemarle Peninsula).