scholarly journals Threatened, endangered, and at-risk species for consideration into climate change models in the Northeast

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Jung ◽  
Michael Guilfoyle ◽  
Austin Davis ◽  
Christina Saltus ◽  
Eric Britzke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Robinia Pseudoacacia ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Army Corps ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Threatened And Endangered Species ◽  
The Us

This special report provides a selection process for choosing priority species using the specific focus of high-elevation, forested habitats in the North Atlantic to demonstrate the process. This process includes criteria for choosing invasive species to incorporate into models, given the predicted spread of invasive plant species because of climate change. Discussed in this report are the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Threatened and Endangered Species Team portal, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Information for Planning and Consultation Portal, the nonprofit organization Partners in Flight’s watch list, the US Geological Survey’s Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation model, and NatureServe’s interagency effort Landfire. The data linked this montane habitat with a species of conservation concern, Cartharus bicknelli and the endangered squirrel Glaucomys sabrinus as target species and with Elaeagnus umbellate, Robinia pseudoacacia, Rhamnus cathartica, and Acer planoides as invasive species. Incorporating these links into the climate change framework developed by Davis et al. (2018) will create predictive models for the impacts of climate change on TER-S, which will affect land management decisions in the region.

scholarly journals Assessing distribution changes of selected native and alien invasive plant species under changing climatic conditions in Nyeri County, Kenya

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julius Maina Waititu ◽  
Charles Ndegwa Mundia ◽  
Arthur W Sichangi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Range Shift ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Invasive Plant Species ◽  
Species Management ◽  
Study Species

AbstractChanges in climatic conditions increases the risks of native and alien taxa expanding in geographical range and causing habitat transformations. The role of climate change in enhancing bio-invasions in local natural environments need to be assessed to guide on effective species management policy formulations. In this present study, we used species presence records, predictor variables and an ensemble of General Circulation Models data to predict suitable ecological niches for five of the selected invasive plant species within Nyeri County, Kenya. We predicted species distributions under RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 emission scenarios for the years 2050 and 2070. We analysed species distribution changes to identify invasive species requiring immediate management action. Our analysis indicated that three of the five study species were suitable in ~50% of the study area while the other two were suitable in ~30% under the current climate. Lantana camara L. and Solanum campylacanthum Hochst. ex A. Rich species would experience the largest range shift distance of ~6 – 10km and the largest habitat gain of ~12 – 33% in the future. Caesalpinia decapetala (Roth) Alston, Opuntia stricta (Haw.) Haw. and Senna didymobotrya (Fresen.) H.S. Irwin & Barneby species on the other hand would have a decline in habitat range under future climate change scenarios. Although, S. didymobotrya is considered a native species, it would lose half of its current suitable habitat in the future. Range shift analysis showed all study species would generally shift to the north west direction or towards the Aberdare ranges. From this study we conclude that invasive species management programs for smaller geographical areas ought to consider projecting species distributions under climate change scenarios to identify areas with high possible biodiversity changes. This would be important to conservationists when prioritizing management actions of invasive species in the region where data on invasive species is still limited.

scholarly journals The role of disturbance in invasive plant establishment in a changing climate: insights from a drought experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildikó Orbán ◽  
Katalin Szitár ◽  
Tibor Kalapos ◽  
György Körel-Dulay
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
Aboveground Biomass ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Seedling Survival ◽  
Soil Disturbance ◽  
Ambrosia Artemisiifolia ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Deciduous Tree

AbstractClimate change and disturbance are two major factors affecting the establishment of invasive species, yet few studies to date have assessed the individual and interactive effects of these two factors in a common setting. Disturbance has often been found to facilitate the establishment of invading species, while climate change may affect them positively or negatively through altering abiotic conditions, or indirectly by modifying species interactions. In a full-factorial field experiment in a semiarid temperate grassland in Central Hungary, we studied the effects of drought (40% rain exclusion throughout the year) and soil disturbance on the emergence, survival and aboveground biomass of four invasive plant species that represent different life forms and that are of concern in the region and at a broader scale. We added seeds of Ambrosia artemisiifolia (annual forb), Cenchrus incertus (annual grass), Asclepias syriaca (perennial forb) and Ailanthus altissima (deciduous tree) in drought and non-drought plots with and without soil disturbance. Ailanthus germinated poorly irrespective of treatments. Disturbance facilitated while drought suppressed seedling emergence in the other three species. Ambrosia was more sensitive to disturbance, while Cenchrus was more responsive to drought. Asclepias achieved substantial emergence in disturbed non-drought plots only, as drought strongly suppressed its emergence even in the presence of disturbance. Seedling survival and late-season aboveground biomass of Ambrosia and Cenchrus were positively affected by disturbance but were unaffected by drought, while no Asclepias seedling survived until late summer. Our results highlight that both drought and disturbance may considerably impact the establishment of invasive plants, with potential interactive effects, but responses may greatly differ among species and life stages. Overall, our findings in this study suggest that although drought may negatively affect seedling establishment, a drier climate may not suppress or eliminate invasive species if soil disturbance is present. They also highlight the importance of including disturbance in studies assessing the potential effects of climate change on plant invasions.

The Biology of Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Esler ◽  
Anna L. Jacobsen ◽  
R. Brandon Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Endemic Species ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean Type Ecosystems

The world’s mediterranean-type climate regions (including areas within the Mediterranean, South Africa, Australia, California, and Chile) have long been of interest to biologists by virtue of their extraordinary biodiversity and the appearance of evolutionary convergence between these disparate regions. Comparisons between mediterranean-type climate regions have provided important insights into questions at the cutting edge of ecological, ecophysiological and evolutionary research. These regions, dominated by evergreen shrubland communities, contain many rare and endemic species. Their mild climate makes them appealing places to live and visit and this has resulted in numerous threats to the species and communities that occupy them. Threats include a wide range of factors such as habitat loss due to development and agriculture, disturbance, invasive species, and climate change. As a result, they continue to attract far more attention than their limited geographic area might suggest. This book provides a concise but comprehensive introduction to mediterranean-type ecosystems. As with other books in the Biology of Habitats Series, the emphasis in this book is on the organisms that dominate these regions although their management, conservation, and restoration are also considered.

The Historiography of Environmental History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. McNeill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.

Rethinking U.S. National Security after Covid19

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda J. Bilmes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Defense Spending ◽  
Federal Spending ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe United States has traditionally defined national security in the context of military threats and addressed them through military spending. This article considers whether the United States will rethink this mindset following the disruption of the Covid19 pandemic, during which a non-military actor has inflicted widespread harm. The author argues that the US will not redefine national security explicitly due to the importance of the military in the US economy and the bipartisan trend toward growing the military budget since 2001. However, the pandemic has opened the floodgates with respect to federal spending. This shift will enable the next administration to allocate greater resources to non-military threats such as climate change and emerging diseases, even as it continues to increase defense spending to address traditionally defined military threats such as hypersonics and cyberterrorism.

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