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Restoration of Ailing Wetlands
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It is widely held that humankind’s destructive
tendencies when exploiting natural resources leads to
irreparable harm to the environment. Yet, this thinking
runs counter to evidence that many ecological systems
damaged by severe natural environmental disturbances
(e.g., hurricanes) can restore themselves via processes of
natural recovery. The emerging field of restoration
ecology is capitalizing on the natural restorative tendencies
of ecological systems to build a science of repairing
the harm inflicted by humans on natural environment.
Evidence for this, for example, comes from a new metaanalysis
of 124 studies that synthesizes recovery of
impacted wetlands worldwide. While it may take up to
two human generations to see full recovery, there is
promise, given human will, to restore many damaged
wetlands worldwide
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Building partnerships and establishing consensus on regional priorities across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Cooperative - Final Report
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As part of our project to identify the most climate vulnerable species in
the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative
we have completed phase one of our project. This report summarizes our findings to date.We completed ten workshops across the
region and have compiled a regional list of priority wildlife species for
consideration in a climate vulnerability assessment.
Included in the report are the top 30 species shared as priorities across
the region, as well as the individual lists from each workshop.
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Multistability and Critical Thresholds of the Greenland Ice Sheet
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Recent studies have focused on the short-term contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to sea-level rise, yet little is known about its long-term stability. The present best estimate of the threshold in global temperature rise leading to complete melting of the ice sheet is 3.1 °C (1.9–5.1 °C, 95% confidence interval) above the preindustrial climate, determined as the temperature for which the modeled surface mass balance of the present-day ice sheet turns negative. Here, using a fully coupled model, we show that this criterion systematically overestimates the temperature threshold and that the Greenland ice sheet is more sensitive to long-term climate change than previously thought.
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Climate Impacts on Bird and Plant Communities From Altered Animal – Plant Interactions
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The contribution of climate change to declining populations of organisms remains a question of outstanding concern. Much attention to declining populations has focused on how changing climate drives phenological mismatches between animals and their food. Effects of climate on plant communities may provide an alternative, but particularly powerful, influence on animal populations because plants provide their habitats. Here, we show that abundances of deciduous trees and associated songbirds have declined with decreasing snowfall over 22 years of study in Montane, Arizona, USA.
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Threats to Freshwater Mussels and the Consequences for Ecosystems
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Catastrophic decline in freshwater mussels may impact water quality and other species. These invertebrates play a crucial role in river ecosystems. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Caryn Vaugh studies mussels' role in their environment. Almost 70 percent of the species are considered threatened in some way. They're the most globally threatened freshwater organism there is.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Climate Change Facebook Page
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Do you all know that the Service has a climate change Facebook page?
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A System for Assessing Vulnerability of Species (SAVS) to Climate Change pdf
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Sustained conservation of species requires integration of future climate change effects, but few tools exist to assist managers. The System for Assessing Vulnerability of Species (SAVS) identifies the relative vulnerability or resilience of vertebrate species to climate change.
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A System for Assessing Vulnerability of Species (SAVS) to Climate Change
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Sustained conservation of species requires integration of future climate change effects, but few tools exist to assist managers. The System for Assessing Vulnerability of Species (SAVS) identifies the relative vulnerability or resilience of vertebrate species to climate change.
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Global Warming May Cause Higher Loss of Biodiversity Than Previously Thought
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If global warming continues as expected, it is estimated that almost a third of all flora and fauna species worldwide could become extinct. Scientists from the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum, BiK-F) and the SENCKENBERG Gesellschaft für Naturkunde discovered that the proportion of actual biodiversity loss should quite clearly be revised upwards: by 2080, more than 80 % of genetic diversity within species may disappear in certain groups of organisms, according to researchers in the title story of the journal Nature Climate Change. The study is the first world-wide to quantify the loss of biological diversity on the basis of genetic diversity.
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Climate Change Hurts Indian Tribes Disproportionately, Report Finds
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North American Indian Tribes are especially harmed by climate change, as more ecological shifts and more frequent, more extreme weather events occur, a new study concludes. Because Tribes are heavily dependent on natural resources, severe weather events like droughts, floods, wildfires, and snowstorms make tribal communities particularly vulnerable and impact American Indians and Alaska Natives more than they impact the general population.
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