Climate-Informed Disease Threat Assessment for Montana’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need

Project Overview

 

Infectious disease poses a growing threat to wildlife and human health, and managing disease threats is complicated by climatic changes that can change levels of disease risk. Researchers supported by this North Central CASC project will co-develop a method to rank wildlife disease threats under climate change, providing critical useable information to Montana’s wildlife managers. This information will be used to proactively manage infectious wildlife diseases and will be integrated into management planning documents, like the State Wildlife Action Plan.



Project Summary

 

Infectious disease is a pressing concern for wildlife conservation and human health. Natural resource managers face a wide range of potential disease threats, but often have little information about effective management strategies or about various levels of potential risk. Climate change further complicates this challenge by rapidly shifting disease risk and introducing new threats. To prioritize limited resources, managers need clear, accessible information on how climate impacts wildlife diseases. Stakeholders in the North Central region (including partners at Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks) have communicated this need for a better understanding of climate change impacts on wildlife disease and have requested scientific support to help compile and integrate this information into key management documents like State Wildlife Action Plans.



This project seeks to co-develop an approach to rank wildlife disease threats under climate change and apply this approach to identify high-priority threats for imperiled wildlife and aquatic species in Montana. The approach will combine existing scientific research with strong user engagement. A major outcome of the project will be integrating climate and disease information into Montana’s revised State Wildlife Action Plan, enabling the state to receive funding for and take on-the-ground actions targeting infectious disease impacts on wildlife.



Understanding future disease threats under climate change is critical for implementing proactive management strategies that effectively limit disease spread. This project will also generate broadly relevant information on the management of novel disease threats under a changing climate, helping to better integrate disease management into climate adaptation science.