Species adaptation to both fire and climate change in tropical montane heath: Can Melaleuca uxorum (Myrtaceae) survive?

Resprouting following fire is an effective and well utilized strategy for tropical montane heath species which have had a long evolutionary history of intermittent fire disturbance. Research conducted in both burnt and unburnt heath suggests that species richness is related to fire, however actual species presence is dependent upon local burning regimes. Taxa that persist in fire-adapted environments may survive through mechanisms including seed storage in the soil seed bank, resprouting from basal, axillary or epicormic buds, roots/rhizomes or terminal aerial buds and/or through migration of seed. We investigated the montane endemic Melaleuca uxorum’s response to fire to understand local adaptation and persistence to fire in fire prone heath and to understand potential impacts of climate change on montane heath ecosystems. We found that the species resprouts at the stem base, along stems from epicormic buds and from axillary buds. The species forms small colonies which appear to be a mixture of sexual and asexual (clonal) reproduction. We predict that the effects of climate change will conspire against tropical montane heath below 1000 m, and those communities away from maritime influences will be under threat of increasingly reduced population numbers and extent as the dry season cloud base is expected to rise in elevation with anticipated rising temperatures. Furthermore, as evaporation rates increase, such communities are anticipated to lose their local specialized flora and to be replaced by more common unspecialized, widespread species.

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Negotiating Adaptation: Norm Selection and Hybridization in International Climate Negotiations

Global Environmental Politics ◽

10.1162/glep_a_00138 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 30-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Frances C. Moore

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

International Level ◽

Adverse Impacts ◽

History Of ◽

International Climate ◽

The Subject ◽

Developing Area ◽

Norm Evolution ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change ◽

International Climate Negotiations

Adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change is a rapidly developing area of policy and the subject of active negotiation at the international level under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This article applies theories of norm evolution to the adaptation negotiations. It proposes that the history of these negotiations can best be understood as a contest between two proposed framings that can be roughly characterized as “adaptation as development” and “adaptation as restitution.” These two framings have some similar and some contradictory implications for policy. The article shows that the major areas of consensus and controversy around adaptation in the UNFCCC negotiations map closely to these areas of similarity and contradiction, respectively. Though the “adaptation as restitution” norm is relatively disadvantaged on many measures of norm-fitness suggested by previous authors, it nevertheless appears to help explain the development of adaptation institutions both within and outside the UNFCCC. A hybridized norm that can be described roughly as “like development but different” is coming to characterize international adaptation institutions.

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The potential impacts of climate change on Australian subtropical rainforest

Australian Journal of Botany ◽

10.1071/bt10319 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 59 (5) ◽

pp. 440 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

M. J. Laidlaw ◽

W. J. F. McDonald ◽

R. John Hunter ◽

D. A. Putland ◽

R. L. Kitching

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽

Cloud Base ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Turnover Rates ◽

Vegetation Communities ◽

Community Turnover ◽

As Species ◽

Break Points ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

The potential for anthropogenic climate change to impact upon native vegetation has emphasised the need for monitoring and for dynamic management regimes. Potential impacts are numerous, but will likely include the upslope movement of species’ ranges and increasing in situ turnover (compositional change) within plant assemblages. By assessing the potential impacts of climate change on subtropical rainforest communities in south-east Queensland through the establishment of an altitudinal transect, we aimed to establish the baseline composition of the vegetation and to develop two hypotheses against which climate change scenarios can be tested. The study identified existing high levels of turnover across tree assemblages from low to mid elevations absent at higher elevations and we predict: (1) subtropical rainforest communities which currently sit at the level of the cloud base (800–900 m) will experience increasing floristic turnover, and (2) novel vegetation communities will emerge as species move upslope in response to a changing climate. Monitoring floristic turnover as a surrogate for shifting climatic habitats may be confounded both by a lack of knowledge regarding the underlying turnover rates of rainforest communities and by the disparity in temporal scales of tree community turnover and accelerating anthropogenic climate change. The identification of ‘break points’ in the relationship between current vegetation communities and gradients of precipitation and temperature will allow better direction of monitoring efforts.

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Biodiverse, productive, and socially just silvopastures: a solution for the Brazilian drylands

Journal of Botanical Research ◽

10.30564/jrb.v2i3.2102 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Felipe Machado Pinheiro ◽

Patrick Hunt

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Agricultural Development ◽

Green Revolution ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

The Past ◽

Suggested Strategy ◽

History Of ◽

Multiple Variables ◽

Interdisciplinary Projects ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Drylands constitute more than 40% of global land and are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In many of these drylands, livestock activities are a major form of land-use. In Brazil, the two major dryland biomes, Cerrado and Caatinga, play a key role in the country’s livestock activities. While important economically, these activities also contribute to the emission of high amounts of greenhouse gases. One suggested strategy for mitigating the impacts of climate change is the adoption of silvopastoral systems (SPS) which combine trees, pasture, and animals simultaneously on the same unit of land. Farmers in the drylands of Brazil have a long history of practicing SPS. The practice of silvopasture is relevant to both climate change and the economy, but not necessarily to the issues of biodiversity loss and economic inequality. The lack of interdisciplinarity in rural agricultural development projects in the past, such as those related to the “Green Revolution”, resulted in the aggravation of economic inequalities and biodiversity loss. The present work, focusing on the Brazilian Drylands, reviews these issues to justify the need for interdisciplinary projects considering multiple variables like soil quality, tree density, biodiversity richness, and farmers’ perception.

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Climate change, biosystematics and taxonomy

Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy ◽

10.3329/bjpt.v28i1.54223 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 277-287

Author(s):

M Khairul Alam

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Phenotypic Plasticity ◽

Environmental Conditions ◽

Information Needs ◽

Adaptive Significance ◽

High Incidence ◽

Plant Taxon ◽

History Of ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

The history of biosystematics research and its impacts on climate goes before political ramifications. Climate change is altering the environments and likely to result in changes in the distribution of species, flowering times; migrate and adapt to the new environmental conditions; or extinction. Adaptive capacity is the ability of the plants to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Adaptation process is going in nature through phenotypic plasticity, natural selection or migration or polyploidization. The options are not mutually exclusive. Phenotypic plasticity may be the most efficient way of adaptation to a new environment. Polyploidization may increase tolerance to diverse ecological conditions and the high incidence of polyploidy in plants indicates its adaptive significance. Population having polyploid pillar complex is a good backup support towards microevolution and speciation, a mode of adaptation. The paper discusses about these biosystematics approaches towards adaptation to new environmental conditions resulting from climate change. It also discusses about the role of taxonomists under the changed circumstances. It is evident from the review that a set of biosystematics data along with other ecological and conservation information needs to be included in Flora and Monographs. It reveals that it was as far as worked out at the Paris Botanical Congress 1954 and put up by Stebbins in a series of proposals, termed as “Stebbins’ Ten Points” that needs further enrichment. Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 28(1): 277-287, 2021 (June)

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