Q 56 - How to anticipate changes in biotopes due to climate change?#
Answers#
CC Analog Base Velocities (Climate change impact assessment)
Trait-based Vulnerability Assessment (Trait-based Vulnerability Assessment)
ESE1 - Ecological toolkit#
Spatial scales: Transboundary / sea basin National Regional / localProtection regimes: Strict protection Non-strict protectionMarine zones: Coastal zone Deep sea Offshore zoneCriteria classes: 1.1.1 Vulnerability 1.1.2 Stability 1.1.3 Functional hotspots 1.1.5 Climate-smart potential 1.2 Structural
Criteria
Category Ecological and genetic criteria
Subcategory Functional
Macro-criterion Vulnerability
Macro-criterion Stability
Macro-criterion Functional hotspots
Macro-criterion Climate-smart potential
Subcategory Structural
Operational approaches: (Tool) CC Analog Base Velocities (Method) Trait-based Vulnerability Assessment
Implementation details
To answer this question, it is important to define the target of the analysis. A biotope is an area characterized by similar environmental (physical) conditions and a specific assemblage of species, that is, a set of adjacent places in a given marine geographic region having more or less similar biotic and abiotic features (Dimitrakopoulos and Troumbis, 2019). In the Scoping phase (step “setting the assessment” Deliverable 3.3, page 21), the biotope characteristics and features (habitat and species) need to be detailed, so that the subsequent analysis of climate-induced changes can target the habitat, species, and communities of the targeted biotopes.
Once the targets of the analysis are defined, Analyze species traits and their sensitivity (page 58), vulnerability, adaptivity (page 93) as a proxy to identify the species at risk or that have potentially adapted to the new conditions in the area. Biotic velocities are methods adapted to evaluate future trends in species distribution. For biotopes, analyze the role of the species in the area (functional roles related to food web structure/trophic level and known function(s) and ecosystem services) to identify potential functional and structural change or loss or possible transfer of this role (redundancy criterion) to other species (refer to the stability criteria, page 93). This will help identifying also change in the socio-economic and well-being benefits deriving from those biotopes Under Climate Change, the redundancy of functions in an area is central as a stability measure. Another strategy is to run an exposure assessment (Deliverable 3.3., section 3.2, page 38) to analyze the disturbance of climatic stressors on the biotopes. The analysis can be run also adopting climate velocities metrics (Deliverable 3.3, page 53) depending on the skills and budget available. Develop monitoring to identify the emergence of new stressors and species migrations is also key element (Deliverable 3.3, page 125).
Notes
Cambra E., Conversi A., Whatley L., Menegon S., Beckaert M., Bongiorni L., Calado H., Pinarbasi K., Barboza F., Lauri K., Sciascia R., Cristina A., Marasovic T, Boudy C., Alloncle N., Gissi E. (2024). Guidance for including climate change scenarios in protection and prioritization strategies for Marine Protected Areas development. Deliverable D3.3, under the WP3 of MSP4BIO project (GA n°101060707)
Dimitrakopoulos P. G., Troumbis A. Y. (2019), Biotopes, in Faith B., Encyclopedia of Ecology (Second Edition), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 359-365
References
Cambra E., Conversi A., Whatley L., Menegon S., Beckaert M., Bongiorni L., Calado H., Pinarbasi K., Barboza F., Lauri K., Sciascia R., Cristina A., Marasovic T, Boudy C., Alloncle N., Gissi E. (2024). Guidance for including climate change scenarios in protection and prioritization strategies for Marine Protected Areas development. Deliverable D3.3, under the WP3 of MSP4BIO project (GA n°101060707)