Insular ecosystems of the southeastern United States—A regional synthesis to support biodiversity conservation in a changing climate

Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Wolfe, William J.

doi:10.3133/pp1828

Cited by 20 publications

(47 citation statements)

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“…Although the analyses by Cartwright and Wolfe (2016) and Costanza and others (2016) employed different approaches and largely addressed different ecosystems, several key findings are common to both studies:…”

Section: Components and Consequences Of Ecosystem Response To Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, Cartwright and Wolfe (2016) performed a comprehensive synthesis of the literature for selected insular ecosystems to lay the necessary groundwork for future explorations of climate-change effects on ecosystem function. Collectively, the analyses by Costanza and others (2016) and Cartwright and Wolfe (2016) incorporate both quantitative and qualitative approaches, draw from a diverse array of data and information sources, and focus on ecosystems ranging in size from dozens of square meters to thousands of square kilometers across the diverse ecoregions of the southeastern United States.…”

Section: Literature Synthesis For Ecological Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of range-restricted species of conservation concern are endemic to the ecosystems analyzed by Cartwright and Wolfe (2016) and Costanza and others (2016) …”

Section: Components and Consequences Of Ecosystem Response To Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…To improve these predictions, Cartwright and Wolfe (2016) and Costanza and others (2016) proposed a set of research priorities to guide future investigations. In particular, hypothesis-driven empirical investigations are needed concerning (1) effects of hydrologic change on ecosystem function, (2) interactions between multiple types of biotic and abiotic change, for example increased soil temperature combined with increased drought frequency, (3) climatic determinants of interspecies interactions including potential for phenological mismatch, (4) climate-change effects on adaptive management options, for example changes in availability of suitable weather conditions for prescribed burning, and (5) effects of scale and spatial resolution on modeled forecasts of ecosystem change.…”

Section: Research Priorities For Future Investigationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two recent U.S. Geological Survey reports (Cartwright and Wolfe, 2016;Costanza and others, 2016) collectively address climate-change vulnerability for 19 terrestrial, aquatic, riparian, and coastal ecosystems across the diverse landscapes of the southeastern United States. Ranging from Appalachian mountain tops to Texas canyons to Caribbean mangroves, these ecosystems were assessed by integrating current scientific knowledge on a broad range of factors, including Investigations by Costanza and others (2016) and Cartwright and Wolfe (2016) represent a unified effort to develop preliminary frameworks for ecosystem-level climate-change vulnerability assessment across the southeastern United States; however, the two studies necessarily employed different and complementary approaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the southeastern United States

Cartwright¹,

Costanza²

2016

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Two recent investigations of climate-change vulnerability for 19 terrestrial, aquatic, riparian, and coastal ecosystems of the southeastern United States have identified a number of important considerations, including potential for changes in hydrology, disturbance regimes, and interspecies interactions. Complementary approaches using geospatial analysis and literature synthesis integrated information on ecosystem biogeography and biodiversity, climate projections, vegetation dynamics, soil and water characteristics, anthropogenic threats, conservation status, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding impacts. Across a diverse set of ecosystems-ranging in size from dozens of square meters to thousands of square kilometers-quantitative and qualitative assessments identified types of climate-change exposure, evaluated sensitivity, and explored potential adaptive capacity. These analyses highlighted key gaps in scientific understanding and suggested priorities for future research. Together, these studies help create a foundation for ecosystem-level analysis of climate-change vulnerability to support effective biodiversity conservation in the southeastern United States.Examples of ecosystems that were analyzed to assess climate-change vulnerability included, A, montane grass and heath balds, B, granite outcrops, C, longleaf pine savannas, and D, flood-scoured riparian areas.

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Section: Components and Consequences Of Ecosystem Response To Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Synthesis For Ecological Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of range-restricted species of conservation concern are endemic to the ecosystems analyzed by Cartwright and Wolfe (2016) and Costanza and others (2016) …”

Section: Components and Consequences Of Ecosystem Response To Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Priorities For Future Investigationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the southeastern United States

Cartwright¹,

Costanza²

2016

Fact Sheet

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Identifying climate‐resistant vernal pools: Hydrologic refugia for amphibian reproduction under droughts and climate change

2021

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Vernal pools of the northeastern United States provide important breeding habitat for amphibians but may be sensitive to droughts and climate change. These seasonal wetlands typically fill by early spring and dry by mid-to-late summer. Because climate change may produce earlier and stronger growing-season evapotranspiration combined with increasing droughts and shifts in precipitation timing, management concerns include the possibility that some pools will increasingly become dry earlier in the year, potentially interfering with amphibian life-cycle completion. In this context, a subset of pools that continues to provide wetland habitat later into the year under relatively dry conditions might function as ecohydrologic refugia, potentially supporting species persistence even as summer conditions become warmer and droughts more frequent. We used approximately 3000 field observations of inundation from 449 pools to train machine-learning models that predict the likelihood of pool inundation based on pool size, day of the year, climate conditions, short-term weather patterns, and soil, geologic and landcover attributes. Models were then used to generate predictions of pool wetness across five seasonal time points, three shortterm weather scenarios and four sets of downscaled climate projections. Model outputs are available through a website allowing users to choose the inundation thresholds, time points, weather scenarios and future climate projections most relevant to their management needs. Together with long-term monitoring of individual pools at the site scale, this regional-scale study can support amphibian conservation by helping to identify which pools may be most likely to function as ecohydrologic refugia from droughts and climate change.

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Ecological islands: conserving biodiversity hotspots in a changing climate

Cartwright

2019

Frontiers in Ecol & Environ

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For decades, botanists have recognized that rare plants are clustered into ecological “islands”: small and isolated habitat patches produced by landscape features such as sinkholes and bedrock outcrops. Insular ecosystems often provide unusually stressful microhabitats for plant growth (due, for example, to their characteristically thin soils, high temperatures, extreme pH, or limited nutrients) to which rare species are specially adapted. Climate‐driven changes to these stressors may undermine the competitive advantage of stress‐adapted species, allowing them to be displaced by competitors, or may overwhelm their coping strategies altogether. Special features of insular ecosystems – such as extreme habitat fragmentation and association with unusual landscape features – could also affect their climate sensitivity and adaptive capacity. To help predict and manage climate‐change impacts, I present a simple conceptual framework based on a synthesis of over 300 site‐level studies. Using this framework, conservation efforts can leverage existing ecological knowledge to anticipate habitat changes and design targeted strategies for conserving rare species.

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Insular ecosystems of the southeastern United States—A regional synthesis to support biodiversity conservation in a changing climate

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

Ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the southeastern United States

Ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the southeastern United States

Identifying climate‐resistant vernal pools: Hydrologic refugia for amphibian reproduction under droughts and climate change

Ecological islands: conserving biodiversity hotspots in a changing climate

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