CRC Press Ecological Consequences of Climate Change: Mechanisms, Conservation, and Management

Contemporary climate change is a crucial management challenge for wildlife scientists, conservation biologists, and ecologists of the 21st century. Climate fingerprints are being detected and documented in the responses of hundreds of wildlife species and numerous ecosystems around the world. To mitigate and accommodate the influences of climate change on wildlife and ecosystems, broader-scale conservation strategies are needed. Ecological Consequences of Climate Change: Mechanisms, Conservation, and Management provides a mechanistic understanding of biotic responses to climate change, in order to better inform conservation and management strategies. Incorporating modeling and real-world examples from diverse taxa, ecosystems, and spatio-temporal scales, the book first presents research on recently observed rapid shifts in temperature and precipitation. It then explains how these shifts alter the biotic landscape within species and ecosystems, and how they may be expected to impose changes in the future. Also included are major sections on monitoring and conservation efforts in the face of contemporary climate change. Contributors highlight the general trends expected in wildlife and ecological responses as well as the exceptions and contingencies that may mediate those responses.Topics covered include: Description and quantification of how aspects of climate have recently changed, and may change in the futureSpecies-level and higher-order ecological responses to climate change and variabilityApproaches to monitor and interpret ecological effects of climatic variabilityConservation and management effortsThe book discusses the quantification of the magnitude and variability in short-term responses, and delineates patterns of relative vulnerability among species and community types. It offers suggestions for designing investigations and management actions, including the long-term monitoring of ecological consequences of rapid climate change. It also identifies many of the biggest gaps in current knowledge, proposing avenues for further research. Bringing together many of the world’s leading experts on ecological effects of climate change, this unique and timely volume constitutes a valuable resource for practitioners, researchers, and students. Review "Researchers and managers alike will enjoy and learn from the case studies of this volume, which can be read individually. Some of the book’s most intriguing questions and potential insights for consequences of climate change, however, lie at the interfaces of ecology, conservation, and management, which are bound here through the thread of mechanism."―KATHARINE J. MACH, Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Global Ecology Stanford, California 94305 USA, in Ecology, 94(1), 2013"… relevant and timely volume that seeks a merger of results from research on mechanisms responsible for effects of climate change with consequences for management … valuable reading for ecologists and managers interested and concerned about the nearly ubiquitous effects of rapid climate change."―The Journal of Wildlife Management, 2012"Contemporary climate change is a crucial management challenge for wildlife scientists, conservation biologists, and ecologists of the 21st century. … [This book] provides a mechanistic understanding of biotic responses to climate change in order to better inform conservation and management strategies. … Bringing together many of the world's leading experts on ecological effects of climate change, this unique and timely volume constitutes a valuable resource for practitioners, researchers, and students."―Northeastern and Southeastern Naturalist, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2012There is no shortage of books and journal articles focusing on how climate change has affected or will likely affect ecological systems. This edited volume is a well-organized, thorough contribution to this literature, with a geographic focus on the western US and Canada. T