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Climate change affects both terrestrial and aquatic biomes causing significant effects on ecosystem functions and biodiversity. Climate change is affecting several key ecological processes and patterns that will have cascading impacts on wildlife and habitat. For example, sea-level rise, changes in the timing and duration of growing seasons, and changes in primary production are mainly driven by changes to global environmental variables (e.g., temperature and atmospheric CO₂). Climate-induced changes in the environment ultimately impact wildlife population abundance and distributions.

Related Article(s):

• Climate Change
• Predicting Species Responses to Climate Change with Population Models

Contributor(s): Dr. Breanna F. Powers and Dr. Julie A. Heath

Key Resource(s):

• Global climate change and wildlife in North America. Wildlife Society Technical Review 04-2
• Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity

Introduction

Global climate change will affect ecosystem functions and cycles such as nutrient, hydraulic, and carbon cycles, changing aspects of environmental conditions such as temperature, soil moisture, and precipitation. Wildlife species are adapted to their environments and changes to the environment and habitat conditions will mediate effects, either directly or indirectly, on species survival, fecundity and ultimately population persistence. The ability to adapt to changing habitat conditions as a result of climate change will differ across individual species and between populations. Some wildlife species may be more vulnerable to climate change than other species (Figure 1). Vulnerability is often linked to particular life-history traits (e.g., specialized habitat needs or limited dispersal abilities, see Pacifici et al. 2015P for a review on species vulnerability to climate change) or genetic composition. For example, grassland birds may be more vulnerable to changing climate than forest birds as forests can buffer change more so than grasslands. Projected changes in the climate will generally have adverse effects of wildlife populations, though there are some species coping with climate change or benefitting from environmental change. For example, American kestrels (Falco sparverius) have shifted their breeding phenology to earlier in the year and may now raise two broods of young within a breeding season.