A decision-support process for projecting climate change and its impacts on habitat supply for species at risk
Lead: Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada)
Timeframe: 2020-2023 [Completed]
WCS Canada’s Northern Boreal Mountains Program initiated a new climate change adaptation project in collaboration with Government partners to evaluate changes in species distribution under different climate change scenarios. The completed models for endemic plants and invertebrates are under review. We will next focus on evaluating spatial and temporal changes in caribou attributes and developing Yukon-wide caribou distribution models, which will also be projected into future scenarios. The overall objective of this project is to develop an adaptive resource repository such as change and refugia maps and other geospatial layers that can be used for land-use planning purposes. A key part of this objective is to develop a web-based portal and modelling platform for interactive model parameterization and evaluation. These tools would enable our government partners and other land use personnel to assess changes in their biological environments for conservation and planning purposes without the technical hurdles.
Photos (below) credit: Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle
Tobi Oke at the Carcross Dunes
Baikal Sedge (Carex Sabulosa), listed on Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act as threatened
Resources
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Endemic Distribution maps
[PDF]
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Adapting to Climate Change in the Yukon
[video]
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Web-Based Portal
[online tool]
Proposed release date = March 30th 2022
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Map of current species richness for alpine tundra and grassland areas
This map indicates species richness for alpine tundra and grassland areas currently (on left). On the right, the stable regions (dark blue) are areas in the current projections that would not change under future scenarios. The light blue polygon is Yukon Beringia.
Other FUnders:
In addition to funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada, this project would not be possible without the generous support of William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Weston Family Foundation. We thank you!
