99th ESA Annual Meeting (August 10 -- 15, 2014)

SYMP 19

Climate and Beyond: Cumulative Impacts on Species Range Shifts

Across a wide and rapidly growing range of taxa and ecosystems, researchers have described contemporary shifts in species distributions. At a broad, cross-taxa perspective, many of these shifts have been consistent with changes in climate, but we know that reality is both more interesting and more complicated. Other factors, including anthropogenic management; release of invasive species; changing interactions between species; and large-scale disturbance can also cause shifts in species ranges. The potential for each of these to interact with climate change raises a set of important questions. How do the cumulative effects facilitate or impede species’ abilities to shift their distributions? How can we tease apart the relative contributions of each factor? How can we use a cumulative impacts perspective to develop a next generation of species distribution forecasts? And how can this science lead improved conservation management? This symposium will focus on exploring and synthesizing answers to these questions across ecosystems, from mountains to oceans, and across taxa, from flowers to cod.