Question

Write a short paragraph on the topic 'Climate Change Refugia' ( 40-60 words)

Answer 1

Explanation:

Climate change is affecting the distribution, abundance, and persistence of species and ecosystems around the world [1]. As natural resource managers are tasked with maintaining and protecting species and ecosystems from the effects of a changing climate, options for minimizing impacts are needed. Options for climate adaptation—the policy and management actions taken to minimize negative effects of climate change—include transition, resilience, and resistance strategies [2]. Transition, or response, strategies focus on allowing inevitable changes to certain attributes of an ecosystem or species (e.g, species composition or ranges), while maintaining ecosystem function and/or desired ecosystem services. For example, planting more southerly species during restoration or restocking could ease the ecological transition to warmer climates and avoid catastrophic failures [3]. Resilience strategies instead focus on giving ecosystems or species what they need to be able to rebound from climate stressors (e.g., fire or drought) and return to their original state. A third climate adaptation option is resistance, which seeks to preserve, as much as possible, the historical structure, composition, and function of the ecosystem in the face of changing climates. One of the primary resistance strategies is to identify and preserve what are known as climate change refugia. Climate change refugia are “areas that remain relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time and enable persistence of valued physical, ecological, and socio-cultural resources” [4]. The key attribute of refugia is their relative persistence, despite changes in the climate in the surrounding landscape. Climate change refugia can result from spatial variability in topography that decouples climatic processes at a smaller scale from broader, regional conditions. One such example is cold-air pooling, where concentrated cold, dense air flows downslope into valleys or basins, creating temperature inversions.