Climate change and endangered species

The unrelenting pace of anthropogenic climate change necessitates a radical shift in conservation goals. Many polar and mountaintop species have already contracted their ranges in response to recent climate change. For species already endangered, focus on historically-occupied habitats may ensure the species’ extinction as global warming shifts the geographic locations of suitable climate space.  Conservation targets under a rapidly shifting climate should incorporate potential habitats: lands which will soon become climatically suitable.  Preservation of biodiversity in the face of climate change will require novel forms of management and unconventional measures of “success.”