U.S. Natural Resources and Climate Change: Concepts and Approaches for Management Adaptation

• Published in: Environmental management (New York) 2009-12, Vol.44 (6), p.1001-1021
• Main Authors: West, Jordan M, Julius, Susan H, Kareiva, Peter, Enquist, Carolyn, Lawler, Joshua J, Petersen, Brian, Johnson, Ayana E, Shaw, M. Rebecca
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Climate adaptation; Climate Change; Climatic conditions; Conservation of Natural Resources; Decision Making; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecosystem resilience; Ecosystems; Environment; Environmental assessment; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental protection; Forestry Management; Literature reviews; Management; Natural resource management; Natural resources; Nature; Nature Conservation; Public lands; Resilience; Resource management; United States; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Wildlife conservation
• ISSN: 0364-152X; 1432-1009
• DOI: 10.1007/s00267-009-9345-1

Public lands and waters in the United States traditionally have been managed using frameworks and objectives that were established under an implicit assumption of stable climatic conditions. However, projected climatic changes render this assumption invalid. Here, we summarize general principles for management adaptations that have emerged from a major literature review. These general principles cover many topics including: (1) how to assess climate impacts to ecosystem processes that are key to management goals; (2) using management practices to support ecosystem resilience; (3) converting barriers that may inhibit management responses into opportunities for successful implementation; and (4) promoting flexible decision making that takes into account challenges of scale and thresholds. To date, the literature on management adaptations to climate change has mostly focused on strategies for bolstering the resilience of ecosystems to persist in their current states. Yet in the longer term, it is anticipated that climate change will push certain ecosystems and species beyond their capacity to recover. When managing to support resilience becomes infeasible, adaptation may require more than simply changing management practices—it may require changing management goals and managing transitions to new ecosystem states. After transitions have occurred, management will again support resilience—this time for a new ecosystem state. Thus, successful management of natural resources in the context of climate change will require recognition on the part of managers and decisions makers of the need to cycle between “managing for resilience” and “managing for change.”