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Published on: February 11, 2020
Managing climate-change refugia to prevent extinctions
Gunnar Keppel1, Diana Stralberg2, Toni Lyn Morelli3
1UniSA STEM and Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, SA 5001, Adelaide, Australia; AMAP, Université de Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France.
Abstract:
Earth is facing simultaneous biodiversity and climate crises. Climate-change refugia - areas that are relatively buffered from climate change - can help address both of these problems by maintaining biodiversity components when the surrounding landscape no longer can. However, this capacity to support biodiversity is often vulnerable to severe climate change and other stressors. Thus, management actions need to consider the complex and multidimensional nature of refugia. We outline an approach to understand refugia-promoting processes and to evaluate refugial capacity to determine suitable management actions. Our framework applies climate-change refugia as tools to facilitate resistance in modern conservation planning. Such refugia-focused management can reduce extinctions and maintain biodiversity under climate change.
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