Developing an Indicator of Species Vulnerability to Climate Change to Support a Consistent Nationwide Approach to Assessing Vulnerability

Scientists and resource managers are in need of a better understanding of the status and trends of wildlife species and the vulnerability of these species to climate change.  Effective prioritization of species and habitats for climate adaptation, endangered species management, and recreational and cultural hunting and fishing will require development, testing, and application of comprehensive strategies for conducting climate change vulnerability assessments.  

This project aims to build and test a method for more consistently assessing species vulnerability to climate change on a national scale. Project researchers will develop an indicator of species vulnerability that can be applied nationwide to support a common strategy for robust analysis and comparison across many species. This work will leverage a growing amount of species occurrence data available from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and will use occurrence, trait, and climate data to produce generalizable, robust, and scalable information across taxonomic, functional, and geographic dimensions of biodiversity.  

This method of developing and applying an indicator of species vulnerability will facilitate direct multispecies comparisons and will use data that are widely available for many species, making it particularly useful in identifying “low profile” or otherwise poorly understood species that are vulnerable to a changing climate. This work will help to inform resource management agency adaptation actions, such as the Department of the Interior (DOI) in their efforts to understand the vulnerability of big-game animals.  A critical part of the process for developing the indicator of species vulnerability at a national scale will also involve direct engagement with key federal end-users, including DOI and other cooperators such as the U.S. Forest Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.