Increasing importance of climate change and other threats to at-risk species in Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-456
Author(s):  
Catherine Woo-Durand ◽  
Jean-Michel Matte ◽  
Grace Cuddihy ◽  
Chloe L. McGourdji ◽  
Oscar Venter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Introduced Species ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Native Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arctic Species ◽  
Over Exploitation ◽  
Paired Analysis ◽  
Over Time

In a previous analysis, six major threats to at-risk species in Canada were quantified: habitat loss, introduced species, over-exploitation, pollution, native species interactions, and natural causes (O. Venter et al. 2006. Bioscience, 56(11): 903–910). Because of rapid environmental change in Canada and an enhanced understanding of the drivers of species endangerment, we updated the 2005 analysis and tested for changes in threats up until the end of 2018. We also expanded the scope to acknowledge climate change as a seventh major threat to species, given its increasing importance for reshaping biological communities. Using information on the COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada) website, we scored the threats for each of 814 species. Habitat loss remained the most important anthropogenic threat to Canada’s at-risk species, affecting 82% of species, followed by over-exploitation (47%), introduced species (46%), and pollution (35%). Climate change was the least important threat, affecting only 13% of species. However, report writers used less certain language when talking about climate change compared with other threats, so when we included cases where climate change was listed as a probable or future cause, climate change was the fourth most important anthropogenic threat, affecting some 38% of species. The prevalence of threat categories was broadly similar to those for the United States and IUCN listed species. The taxa most affected by climate change included lichens (77%), birds (63%), marine mammals (60%), and Arctic species of all taxa (79%), whereas vascular plants (23%), marine fishes (24%), arthropods (27%), and non-Arctic species (35%) were least affected. A paired analysis of the 188 species with two or more reports indicated that any mention of climate change as a threat increased from 12% to 50% in 10 years. Other anthropogenic threats that have increased significantly over time in the paired analysis included introduced species, over-exploitation, and pollution. Our analysis suggests that threats are changing rapidly over time, emphasizing the need to monitor future trends of all threats, including climate change.

Mitigating Impacts of Natural Hazards on Fishery Ecosystems

2008 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Pollution ◽  
United States ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nutrient Input ◽  
Poster Abstract

<em>Poster Abstract</em>.—Puget Sound, Washington, with more than 3,790 km of shoreline and a watershed of 42,800 km2, is the second largest estuary in the United States. Although Puget Sound supports a wide variety of marine species and economic industries, its health is deteriorating due to ecological stresses caused by fishing, climate change, habitat loss, water pollution, and excess nutrient input.

When Skepticism Became Public

2020 ◽  
pp. 38-80
Author(s):  
Raul P. Lejano ◽  
Shondel J. Nero ◽  
Michael Chua
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
American Values ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Conservative Media ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Over Time

Chapter 3 traces the emergence and evolution of the climate skeptical narrative in the United States, showing how it has become more ideological over time, in tandem with sociopolitical events and movements. It examines the development and shifts in the narrative from the early twenty-first century to the present through narrative and critical discourse analyses of summary plots of articles and accompanying comments in conservative media outlets over five successive periods of time, providing textual evidence of how the narrative grew increasingly ideological in each period. The following textual analyses illustrate how skeptics have constructed an alternative ideological narrative through invariance, repetition, alternative data, binary frames (us vs. them), attributing sinister motives to and demonizing the other side, and reinforcing positions by sharing the narrative with like-minded people. In so doing, they created their own narrative-network by denaturalizing the dominance of anthropogenic climate change, framing it as unsettled science, and linking it to politics and fundamental American values of freedom.

A systematic review of parasites and micropredators of non-avian reptiles (Reptilia=Sauropsida) in Chile

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4543 (3) ◽  
pp. 301 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIO SAN-MARTÍN-ÓRDENES ◽  
SEBASTIÁN MUÑOZ-LEAL ◽  
CARLOS F. GARÍN ◽  
DANIEL GONZÁLEZ-ACUÑA
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Exotic Species ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Parasite Ecology ◽  
Taxonomic Descriptions

Knowledge about the identity of parasites in vertebrates is relevant because of their influence on ecological processes and health of their hosts. This is particularly important for groups of animals currently facing conservation issues, such as reptiles. The diversity of species and supra-specific taxa of microparasites and macroparasites (such as helminths and arthropods) present in non-avian reptiles in Chile was analyzed through a systematic review. A total of 49 scientific documents (thesis projects, abstracts in congresses, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles) concerning parasites, taxonomic descriptions and parasite ecology were included in this review. The suborder Iguania was among the most studied group with 35 native species recognized as hosts of parasites and 39 species of parasites reported up to the category of species or genus. Liolaemus tenuis was the species with the most taxa of recorded parasites (11 taxa, and only three to species level), but Liolaemus chillanensis had the highest number of identified species of parasites. In addition, only one native species of Serpentes, one of Gymnophthalmoidea, and two of Gekkota, as well as some reports of exotic species, were recorded as hosts. Among parasites, Trombidiformes was the richest order with 10 species from the superfamily Pterygosomatoidea and 16 species from Trombiculoidea. Current knowledge about the richness of helminths is very limited and there were only a few records of microparasites. In general, there is an urgent need for the development of collaborative works between specialists in reptile taxonomy and epidemiology in parasitology destined to evaluate the consequences that reptiles and their parasites will suffer due to the ongoing processes of habitat loss, climate change and the still present taxonomic issues of the native reptiles. 

Rapid niche shifts in introduced species can be a million times faster than changes among native species and ten times faster than climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 2115-2125 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Wiens ◽  
Yuriy Litvinenko ◽  
Lauren Harris ◽  
Tereza Jezkova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Introduced Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Niche Shifts

scholarly journals Economic Risk Assessment of Climate Change at the Urban Scale: The Case of Cape Town, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin de Wit ◽  
Jonty Rawlins ◽  
Belynda Petrie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Climate Response ◽  
Economic Risk ◽  
Capital At Risk ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Economic Risks

Estimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remain highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in developing cities to inform spatially sensitive municipal climate response strategies. Building on a capital-based framework (CBF), spatially disaggregated baseline and future scenario scores for economic wealth and its exposure to climate change are developed for six different classes of capital and across 77 major suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa. Capital-at-risk was calculated by combining relative exposure and capital scores across different scenarios and with population impacted plotted against the major suburbs and the city’s 8 main planning districts. The economic risk assessment presented here provides a generic approach to assist investment planning and the implementation of adaptation options through an enhanced understanding of relative levels of capital endowment vis-à-vis relative levels of exposure to climate-related hazards over time. An informed climate response strategy in spatially heterogeneous cities need to include spatially sensitive estimates on capital-at-risk and populations disproportionally impacted by climate exposure over time. The economic risk assessment approach presented here helps in advancing to such a goal.

scholarly journals The importance of phylogeny to the study of phenological response to global climate change

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1555) ◽  
pp. 3201-3213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Davis ◽  
Charles G. Willis ◽  
Richard B. Primack ◽  
Abraham J. Miller-Rushing
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
The Uk

Climate change has resulted in major changes in the phenology—i.e. the timing of seasonal activities, such as flowering and bird migration—of some species but not others. These differential responses have been shown to result in ecological mismatches that can have negative fitness consequences. However, the ways in which climate change has shaped changes in biodiversity within and across communities are not well understood. Here, we build on our previous results that established a link between plant species' phenological response to climate change and a phylogenetic bias in species' decline in the eastern United States. We extend a similar approach to plant and bird communities in the United States and the UK that further demonstrates that climate change has differentially impacted species based on their phylogenetic relatedness and shared phenological responses. In plants, phenological responses to climate change are often shared among closely related species (i.e. clades), even between geographically disjunct communities. And in some cases, this has resulted in a phylogenetically biased pattern of non-native species success. In birds, the pattern of decline is phylogenetically biased but is not solely explained by phenological response, which suggests that other traits may better explain this pattern. These results illustrate the ways in which phylogenetic thinking can aid in making generalizations of practical importance and enhance efforts to predict species' responses to future climate change.

scholarly journals Too Hot to Work: Assessing the Threats Climate Change Poses to Outdoor Workers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dahl ◽  
◽  
Rachel Licker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
The United States ◽  
Extreme Heat ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Outdoor Workers ◽  
Hot Days

Outdoor workers face severe risks from extreme heat—risks that will increasingly threaten the health and livelihood of tens of millions of outdoor workers in the United States as climate change makes dangerously hot days more frequent and intense. With economic and legal systems that routinely discount their lives and safety, workers who experience heat-related injuries or illnesses on the job have little to no recourse. By midcentury, with no action to reduce global warming emissions, an estimated $37.1 billion in outdoor workers’ earnings would be at risk annually due to extreme heat. Even with bold action to limit emissions, outdoor workers will face severe and rising risks from extreme heat. Policymakers and employers must take actions to protect outdoor workers.

scholarly journals Are American Pikas (Ochotona princeps) in the Canadian Rockies vulnerable to climate change?

2015 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 254
Author(s):  
Christopher C. Shank
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
At Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Canadian Rockies ◽  
Considerable Uncertainty ◽  
Ochotona Princeps ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Almost All ◽  
American Pika

The American Pika (Ochotona princeps) is vulnerable to climate change as a result of its dependence on cool, moist conditions. Most research on climatic determinants of American Pika distribution has been done in the United States where conditions are different from those in the higher-latitude pika ranges of the Canadian Rockies. I examined recent (1980–2009) and future (2050s and 2080s) average and maximum mean summer temperatures for 114 current American Pika locations in Alberta to assess whether future conditions are likely to place these animals at risk. At all current sites, mean summer temperatures (MSTs) in the 2050s are expected to be below that chosen by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as a threshold for at-risk status of O. princeps. By the 2050s, most current American Pika locations have sufficient elevation within 5 km to allow individuals to migrate vertically to reach habitat with MST similar to that of their current location. Even in the 2080s, almost all current sites have sufficient elevation within 5 km to maintain extreme single-year and average MSTs lower than the highest values recorded at those sites in the recent past (13.9°C and 12.5°C respectively). However, by the 2080s under an extreme greenhouse gas emissions scenario, only 34% of current pika sites will allow for such migration. Although considerable uncertainty remains, particularly with respect to availability of habitat, these results suggest that American Pika populations in Alberta will likely be capable of persisting throughout this century, although their survival will depend increasingly on successful vertical migration.

scholarly journals The United States and the making of an Arctic nation

Polar Record ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika E. Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
The Us ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTThe United States has sometimes been called a reluctant Arctic actor, but during its chairmanship of the Arctic Council (2015–2017) the US engaged as an active proponent of Arctic cooperation, using the region as a showcase for strong global climate policy. This paper places US Arctic policy development during the Obama presidency within a longer time perspective, with a focus on how US interests towards the region have been formulated in policies and policy statements. The paper uses frame analysis to identify overarching discourses and discusses the extent to which certain themes and political logics recur or shift over time. It highlights economic development and national competitiveness as a prominent recurring frame, but also that the policy discourse has moved from nation-building and military security towards a broader security perspective, with attention to energy supply for the US, and more recently also to the implications of climate change. Over time, there is a clear shift from reluctance towards Arctic regional cooperation to embracing it. Moreover, it highlights how different stands in relation to climate change have affected Arctic cooperation in the past and may do so again in the future.

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