International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources

About: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources is a nonprofit organization based out in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Biodiversity & Population. The organization has 1317 authors who have published 1870 publications receiving 97588 citations.

Persist in place or shift in space? Evaluating the adaptive capacity of species to climate change

Abstract: Assessing the vulnerability of species to climate change serves as the basis for climateadaptation planning and climatesmart conservation, and typically involves an evaluation of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity (AC). AC is a species’ ability to cope with or adjust to changing climatic conditions, and is the least understood and most inconsistently applied of these three factors. We propose an attributebased framework for evaluating the AC of species, identifying two general classes of adaptive responses: “persist in place” and “shift in space”. Persistinplace attributes enable species to survive in situ, whereas the shiftinspace response emphasizes attributes that facilitate tracking of suitable bioclimatic conditions. We provide guidance for assessing AC attributes and demonstrate the framework’s application for species with disparate life histories. Results illustrate the broad utility of this generalized framework for informing adaptation planning and guiding species conservation in a rapidly changing climate.