Evaluating Species’ Adaptive Capacity in a Changing Climate: Applications to Natural-Resource Management in the Northwestern U.S.

Natural resource managers are confronted with the pressing challenge to develop conservation plans that address complex ecological and societal needs against the backdrop of a rapidly changing climate. Climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) provide valuable information that helps guide management and conservation actions in this regard. An essential component to CCVAs is understanding adaptive capacity, or the ability of a species to cope with or adjust to climate change. However, adaptive capacity is the least understood and evaluated component of CCVAs. This is largely due to a fundamental need for guidance on how to assess adaptive capacity and incorporate this information into conservation planning and decision-making. 

 

To address this need, an international group of scientists and practitioners developed a framework for evaluating adaptive capacity that can be applied to any species or system, with associated guidelines aimed at the natural-resource management community. In this project, researchers will work with state and federal management agencies in the Northwest region to demonstrate and implement the adaptive capacity framework on a diverse array of species. As part of this effort, researchers will evaluate the adaptive capacity of priority or at-risk species and work with state and federal partners to incorporate these results into climate adaptation plans.

 

This project seeks to integrate information on adaptive capacity into existing and planned climate adaptation efforts in the Northwest region. This work will also support upcoming management and planning efforts, including U.S. Forest Service land management plan revisions, as well as ongoing and planned Species Status Assessments (SSAs), recovery plans, and State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs).