Climate Change: SEAFWA Thoughts?

1
Climate Change SEAFWA Thoughts?

• Ken Haddad, Executive Director
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
• September 2007

2
Southeast Director Responses

• Is your agency working on the issue? Most no but
  monitoring efforts will aid.
• Is your state government taking steps? Exec
  Orders, fuel alternatives
• Director ranking?low to medium
• Major Issues Sea level, weather extremes,
  migrations, range expansion of southern species,
  habitat change, exotics expansion, conversion of
  forest to fuel.

3
Goal minimize species loss and optimize wildlife
value and survival in the face of climate change

• Need to
• Generate information on the direction and range
  of climate effects
• ID highest value wildlife species and habitat
  targets
• Policy frameworks that are flexible to
  uncertainties
• Plan to mitigate adverse effects
• Elicit political, economic and public opinion
  that allows these responses.

4
Impacts and Vulnerability

• Earlier greening of vegetation linked to longer
  thermal growing seasons
• Shifts in ranges and composition of algal and
  plankton populations
• Range changes of wildlife populations and
  vegetation
• Alterations in disturbance regimes of forests due
  to fires and pests

5
Impacts and Vulnerability

• Combination of sea-level rise and human impacts
  contribute to loss of coastal wetlands and
  mangroves increased damage from coastal erosion
  and flooding
• Corals vulnerable to thermal stress have slow
  adaptive capacity
• Altered spatial distribution of some infectious
  disease vectors

6
Impacts and Vulnerability

• Threats to freshwater resources critical to fish
  and wildlife
• Increased invasion/spread of non-native species
• Changes in rainfall patterns- erosion, plant
  communities, quality/quantity of surface and
  groundwater
• Wetland migration or loss
• Shift in waterfowl nesting and migration patterns

7
Impacts and Vulnerability

• Salt marshes and mangroves losses where
  constrained by development or sediment deficits
• High elevation habitats have no where to go
• coldwater fisheries and warming streams and lakes

8
Short Term Solutions

• Convert marginal agricultural land into forested
  land to increase carbon sequestration
• Explore long-term impact
• of crop production for ethanol on wildlife
• Conserve woodlands from
• development

9
Longer Term Solutions (Adaptation)

• Most stringent efforts cannot avoid further
  impacts in next few decades- makes adaptation
  more important
• Need mix of mitigation, adaptation, technical
  development and research to combine with
  incentive-based policies and actions at all
  levels from individual to international
• Adaptation measures in land-use planning
  infrastructure design
• Increase ability to predict biological responses

10
Data Gaps

• Lack of geographic balance in data and literature
  on observed changes
• No clear picture of limits to adaptation (highly
  dependent on species, and geographical factors as
  well as public opinion, political and financial
  constraints)

11
Landscape or Habitat-based Focus

• Large areas needed to allow diversity.
• Areas of significant north-south
• extentCorridors that connect affected areas
• Areas inland of predicted flood zones
• Migrant transit locations

12
Species Focus

• Species with limited distribution
• Species with limited movement/migration capacity
• Species with known narrow temperature
  dependencies
• Species isolated in discontinuous habitats
• Highly charismatic and popular species
• Species of high economic value

13
What are we doing now?

• Long term monitoring of some species
• Planning process include restoration strategies
  with a wider range of weather conditions
• Defining flows for
• streams, rivers and estuaries
• Starting the discussions

14
What are we doing now?

• Monitoring of nonnative species
• Development of predictive models
• Benchmarking to evaluate future climate
  variability
• Legislation/executive orders beginning to
  generate action

15
What now?

• Many species and habitats will adapt
• without intervention
• Focus on species that will be challenged by
  climate change
• Focus on species whose loss in the southeast
  would be a significant or complete loss of the
  species in the world.
• Focus on the distribution of habitats that
  species need

16
The climate change issue is larger than fish and
wildlife

• Maximize our influence across the whole range of
  climate change responses
• Carefully consider and balance the modification
  of fish and wildlife regulations to reduce human
  costs of adaptation to climate change
• Communicate the importance of our vision for
  active management of wildlife in response to
  climate change
• Actively communicate policy objectives and
  constraints to public, media and legislature