A Model Web approach to modelling climate change in biomes of Important Bird Areas

Protected Areas (PA) were originally designed for the conservation of the fauna and flora and their protection against anthropogenic pressure. Park boundaries, however, offer not only no protection against climatic change but, should these boundaries be physical, they also may act as barriers for the species in need of new suitable habitats. Means for assessing the consequences of climate change on the parks’ ecosystems and for identifying gaps in their connectivity are therefore becoming a priority. The complexity of the scientific questions raised requires a multi-disciplinary response given the variety of the information required, from species observations and their theoretical distributions, to ecosystems assessments and climate change models. Such complex questions can be more easily dealt with by an increased access to data and models, a strategy endorsed by GEO-BON, the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network. In this paper, we will show how data and models made recently available on the World Wide Web by a few key organisations active in the field of biodiversity conservation can make a difference. By coupling a few data and model services, we will show how climate change can be forecasted for Important Bird Areas and how, for any bird species described in the databases, areas can be identified where the threatened species may find in the future a more suitable environment for surviving..

SKOIEN Jon;  SCHULZ Andreas Michael;  DUBOIS Gregoire;  FISHER Ian;  BALMAN Mark;  MAY Ian;  O'TUAMA Eamonn; 

2013-03-06

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

JRC73433

1574-9541,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954112001203,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC73433,   

10.1016/j.ecoinf.2012.12.003,