1. Global impacts of Climate Change
and Potentials for Adaptation and
Mitigation through Ecosystem
Restoration
COP15, IUCN Side Event, Copenhagen, 2009
Dr. Camille Parmesan
Professor, Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, USA

2. Observed Changes in Wild Plants and Animals
>1,700 Species Globally Parmesan & Yohe, Nature 2003
CHANGED AS PREDICTED
STABLE
OPPOSITE OF PREDICTION
52% changing
where they live

3. Ecological Responses Dominate -
Evolution has not Affected Species’
Fundamental Climate Niches
Parmesan AREES 2006
Evidence for local, population-level evolution
(Micro-evolution) - several !
No evidence for species-level evolution
(Macro-evolution):
• No evidence for new “super-hot-adapted” mutations
• No evidence for any species living in new climate space
• No response to artificial selection to tolerate more extreme
climatic conditions than found in wild
(fruit flies, butterflies) (Hoffmann et al 2003, Crozier 2003 a,b; Jordano et al 2000)

4. Declines and Range Contractions of Sea
Ice-Species in Arctic and Antarctic
2007
NOAA
Ringed
Arctic Seal
2002-2007
NOAA
Ice-dependent
penguins declining
by 70 - 95%
Adelie &
Ice-dependent Emperor
penguins increasing or penguins
smaller declines (<20%) Antarctic
Smith et al. Bioscience 1999; Fraser et al. Polar Biol. 1992; Emslie et al. Ant. Science 1998

5. Mountaintop Species
• Many species have contracted
upward
• First extinctions
white
golden lemuroid
toad possum
Costa Rica Australia
pika, USA
& Nepal
Apollo
Europe
& Nepal Parmesan AREES 2006

6. Climate Change Drove a Shift in Lands
Deserving Highest Conservation Priority
E.e. quino - The only existing populations with historic
densities are newly discovered sites further east and
at higher elevations than historically-recorded distribution
(> 4500 ft, yellow circles) Parmesan Nature 1996,
USFWS 2009

7. Problem: Species’ Forced Out of
Traditional Homelands &
Protected Areas
Solutions:
• Assisted Colonization
• Restoration to create habitat corridors
•Creation of new habitats adapted to
future climate
Impediments: Conservation laws & tools
focus on return to historic state
Hoegh-guldberg et al. Science 2008

8. Restoration of Vernal Pool habitats in southern
California
USFWS, Recon Environmental Inc.
Photos
courtesy
Mark
Dodero,
Project
Manager &
Sr
Biologist

9. •Landscape topography molded (shallow depression
created
• Appropriate soils brought in (build clay lens)
• Water storage, filtration & flow altered

10. YEAR 3
• Self-sustaining
• Occasional
weeding needed
to keep out
exotics
• Habitat for 5
endangered vernal
pool species
• Cost: $ 1m/acre

11. Restoration of Native American Prairie
- Help biodiversity adapt
- Help mitigate climate change
Native bunchgrasses
Deep Root system
C-storage (by 52%)
Water storage
Resistance to drought
and heat waves
Nutritional value
Adapted to grazing
Only carbon-neutral crop
10 ft
Native
Franzluebbers 2005, Fargione et al. 2008, Poteet unpubl, Little bluestem

12. Full Carbon Budget Shows Prairie Carbon-Neutral
Conversion of Lands to Biofuel Production
Fargione et al. 2008 Science
Emission of carbon
from soil
Loss of carbon
above ground
Indonesia Brazil USA