Improving assessment and modelling of climate change impacts on global terrestrial biodiversity

Sean M. McMahon; Sandy P. Harrison; W. Scott Armbruster; Patrick J. Bartlein; Colin M. Beale; Mary E. Edwards; Jens Kattge; Guy Midgley; Xavier Morin; I. Colin Prentice

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2011.02.012

Improving assessment and modelling of climate change impacts on global terrestrial biodiversity

Sean M. McMahon^*, Sandy P. Harrison, W. Scott Armbruster, Patrick J. Bartlein, Colin M. Beale, Mary E. Edwards, Jens Kattge, Guy Midgley, Xavier Morin, I. Colin Prentice

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

270 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Understanding how species and ecosystems respond to climate change has become a major focus of ecology and conservation biology. Modelling approaches provide important tools for making future projections, but current models of the climate-biosphere interface remain overly simplistic, undermining the credibility of projections. We identify five ways in which substantial advances could be made in the next few years: (i) improving the accessibility and efficiency of biodiversity monitoring data, (ii) quantifying the main determinants of the sensitivity of species to climate change, (iii) incorporating community dynamics into projections of biodiversity responses, (iv) accounting for the influence of evolutionary processes on the response of species to climate change, and (v) improving the biophysical rule sets that define functional groupings of species in global models.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	249-259
Number of pages	11
Journal	Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Volume	26
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.02.012
Publication status	Published - May 2011

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abstract = "Understanding how species and ecosystems respond to climate change has become a major focus of ecology and conservation biology. Modelling approaches provide important tools for making future projections, but current models of the climate-biosphere interface remain overly simplistic, undermining the credibility of projections. We identify five ways in which substantial advances could be made in the next few years: (i) improving the accessibility and efficiency of biodiversity monitoring data, (ii) quantifying the main determinants of the sensitivity of species to climate change, (iii) incorporating community dynamics into projections of biodiversity responses, (iv) accounting for the influence of evolutionary processes on the response of species to climate change, and (v) improving the biophysical rule sets that define functional groupings of species in global models.",

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AU - Edwards, Mary E.

AU - Kattge, Jens

AU - Midgley, Guy

AU - Morin, Xavier

AU - Prentice, I. Colin

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AB - Understanding how species and ecosystems respond to climate change has become a major focus of ecology and conservation biology. Modelling approaches provide important tools for making future projections, but current models of the climate-biosphere interface remain overly simplistic, undermining the credibility of projections. We identify five ways in which substantial advances could be made in the next few years: (i) improving the accessibility and efficiency of biodiversity monitoring data, (ii) quantifying the main determinants of the sensitivity of species to climate change, (iii) incorporating community dynamics into projections of biodiversity responses, (iv) accounting for the influence of evolutionary processes on the response of species to climate change, and (v) improving the biophysical rule sets that define functional groupings of species in global models.

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Improving assessment and modelling of climate change impacts on global terrestrial biodiversity

Abstract

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