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Confronting Climate Change

Using the NatureServe Climate Change Vulnerability Index: A Nevada Case Study

 

Tthe State of Nevada is amending its State Wildlife Action Plan (“SWAP”) to incorporate the potential effects of climate change in more detail. The Nevada Department of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, Nevada Natural Heritage Program (a NatureServe network member program), Lahontan Audubon Society, and Great Basin Bird Observatory have formed a partnership to complete the amendment.

Nevada’s SWAP was approved in 2006, and although it (like many other states’ plans) identified climate change as a stressor to key habitats and species of conservation concern in a few specific areas, it did not address the degree of vulnerability each species may face due to a warming climate. The initial focus of the amendment is on assessing the vulnerability of Nevada’s 263 Conservation Priority animal species, using the NatureServe Climate Change Vulnerability Index. The partnership hopes to eventually expand the application of the Index to plants and other Nevada species.

The Nevada Natural Heritage Program applied the Index to a selection of priority species from the state. The Index provides a means of dividing species into groupings of relative risk to climate change and of identifying key factors causing species to be vulnerable. Used with standard conservation status assessments such as the NatureServe G- and S-rank system, the Index can help land managers evaluate the likely effectiveness of alternative strategies to promote adaptation of species to climate change as well as select key species to monitor.

An initial assessment of 13 Nevada species yielded the following results, sorted by vulnerability category. Within categories, species are sorted by conservation status to further order the severity of the risk.

Species Index Score S-Rank G-Rank
Mountain beaver
(Aplodontia rufa)		 Extremely Vulnerable S1 G5
Clover Valley speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus oligoporus) Highly Vulnerable S1 G5T1
Nevada viceroy
(Limenitis archippus lahontani)		 Highly Vulnerable S1S2 G5T1T2
American pika
(Ochotona princeps)		 Highly Vulnerable S2 G5
Water shrew
(Sorex palustris)		 Highly Vulnerable S2 G5
Lahontan cutthroat trout
(Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi)		 Highly Vulnerable S3 G4T3
Northern leopard frog
(Rana pipiens)		 Moderately Vulnerable S2 G5
Cusick's whitlow-grass
(Draba cusickii var. pedicellata)		 Moderately Vulnerable S3 G4T3
Black rosy-finch
(Leucosticte atrata)		 Moderately Vulnerable S3 G4
Quaking aspen
(Populus tremuloides)		 Moderately Vulnerable SNR G5
Eastwood milkweed
(Asclepias eastwoodiana)		 Presumed Stable S2 G2
Desert horned lizard
(Phrynosoma platyrhinos)		 Presumed Stable S4 G5
Great-tailed grackle
(Quiscalus mexicanus)		 Increase Likely S5 G5

The study also lists the factors that contributed to the vulnerability scores in order to highlight how climate change will have the greatest effect on the species assessed. For example, for the mountain beaver, its vulnerability to the effects of climate change is increased by natural barriers to its range, its inherent dispersal ability, and its macro-level precipitation requirements. Other factors that increase the vulnerability for several of these initial species are their micro-scale temperature and precipitation requirements, migration needs, and specialized physical habitat requirements. Understanding which factors have the greatest potential impact can suggest which management actions would be most beneficial—and therefore most important to include in the amendment to the Nevada SWAP.

For more information about the Index and how it is being applied in Nevada, download the case study (PDF, 149KB), or contact Jennifer Newmark of the Nevada Natural Heritage Program.