Thuiller W., Albert C., Araújo M.B., Berry P.M., Cabeza M., Guisan A., Hickler T., Midgley G.F., Paterson J., Schurr F.M., Sykes M.T., Zimmermann N.E.
Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, UMR-CNRS 5553, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Departmento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, C/ Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2, Madrid, 28006, Spain; Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Rd., Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom; Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, Finland; Laboratoire de Biologie de la Conservation, Département d'Ecologie et d'Evolution, Université de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden; Climate Change Research Group, Kirstenbosch Research Center, South African National Biodiversity Institute, P/Bag x7, Claremont 7735 Cape Town, South Africa; Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 2, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany; Land-use Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Thuiller, W., Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, UMR-CNRS 5553, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Albert, C., Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, UMR-CNRS 5553, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Araújo, M.B., Departmento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, C/ Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2, Madrid, 28006, Spain; Berry, P.M., Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Rd., Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom; Cabeza, M., Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, Finland; Guisan, A., Laboratoire de Biologie de la Conservation, Département d'Ecologie et d'Evolution, Université de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Hickler, T., Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden; Midgley, G.F., Climate Change Research Group, Kirstenbosch Research Center, South African National Biodiversity Institute, P/Bag x7, Claremont 7735 Cape Town, South Africa; Paterson, J., Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Rd., Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom; Schurr, F.M., Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 2, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany; Sykes, M.T., Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden; Zimmermann, N.E., Land-use Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Given the rate of projected environmental change for the 21st century, urgent adaptation and mitigation measures are required to slow down the on-going erosion of biodiversity. Even though increasing evidence shows that recent human-induced environmental changes have already triggered species' range shifts, changes in phenology and species' extinctions, accurate projections of species' responses to future environmental changes are more difficult to ascertain. This is problematic, since there is a growing awareness of the need to adopt proactive conservation planning measures using forecasts of species' responses to future environmental changes. There is a substantial body of literature describing and assessing the impacts of various scenarios of climate and land-use change on species' distributions. Model predictions include a wide range of assumptions and limitations that are widely acknowledged but compromise their use for developing reliable adaptation and mitigation strategies for biodiversity. Indeed, amongst the most used models, few, if any, explicitly deal with migration processes, the dynamics of population at the "trailing edge" of shifting populations, species' interactions and the interaction between the effects of climate and land-use. In this review, we propose two main avenues to progress the understanding and prediction of the different processes occurring on the leading and trailing edge of the species' distribution in response to any global change phenomena. Deliberately focusing on plant species, we first explore the different ways to incorporate species' migration in the existing modelling approaches, given data and knowledge limitations and the dual effects of climate and land-use factors. Secondly, we explore the mechanisms and processes happening at the trailing edge of a shifting species' distribution and how to implement them into a modelling approach. We finally conclude this review with clear guidelines on how such modelling improvements will benefit conservation strategies in a changing world. © 2007 Rübel Foundation, ETH Zürich.