Managing for movement: tackling the national challenges associated with the redistribution of biodiversity driven by climate change
Dr Nathalie Pettorelli1
1Institute Of Zoology, London, United Kingdom
There is a growing recognition that the redistribution of species driven by a changing climate is creating profound challenges for societies and regional economies around the globe. As well as having serious consequences for economic development, livelihoods, food security, human health and culture, species’ redistribution is testing the limit of our understanding of ecological systems, highlighting key knowledge gaps in our ability to predict biodiversity’s response to global environmental change. To date, we have a restricted understanding of the risks species redistribution pose to individual countries, and a limited appreciation of the variability in current opportunities for developing effective monitoring approaches that build on existing national frameworks.
To address this gap, this contribution will use the United Kingdom (UK) to start gauging current national capabilities for tracking species on the move and predicting their impacts in highly developed, data rich countries. Using a comprehensive dataset on species movement in the UK, I will (i) assess the present level of ecological, economical and societal risks posed by species range shifts driven by changes in climatic conditions in the UK; (ii) evaluate current constraints to the effective monitoring of species redistribution in the country; (iii) suggest priority actions to increase the level of national preparedness for tackling the challenges associated with species on the move in the country.
Biography:
Dr Nathalie Pettorelli is a senior researcher at the Zoological Society of London. Her expertise is in population ecology, ecosystem assessments, climate change ecology and conservation biology. She is a senior editor for Journal of Applied Ecology, and the editor in Chief of Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation. Nathalie has published >150 peer reviewed papers and 4 books on topics related to wildlife management, biodiversity monitoring and satellite remote sensing.