New 'Vulnerability Map' Offers Fresh Look at Climate Change

An international team of researchers have published a map detailing the regions of the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The vulnerability map, which was created by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the University of Queensland, and Stanford University, "identifies the world's most vulnerable and least vulnerable areas in the Age of Climate Change," the WCS said in a statement.

The map's creators contend that the data presented by the map, which highlights regions with high and low climate stability, will help governments, environmental agencies and other organizations identify the best areas to invest resources into for restoration and conservation efforts so that investors "have the biggest return" on the resources they put in to saving ecosystems and wildlife.

"We need to realize that climate change is going to impact ecosystems both directly and indirectly in a variety of ways and we can't keep on assuming that all adaptation actions are suitable everywhere. The fact is there is only limited funds out there and we need to start to be clever in our investments in adaptation strategies around the world," said James Watson, Director of WCS's Climate Change Program and lead author of the research, which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change. "The analysis and map in this study is a means of bringing clarity to complicated decisions on where limited resources will do the most good."

Watson and his colleagues contend that almost all climate change assessments to date are not fully rationalized because they do not take into account that most landscapes and seascapes have been modified by humans in different ways, making them more or less susceptible to the effects of climate change.

The researchers contend that the best areas for future protection are those ecosystems that have highly intact vegetation and relatively high climate stability because they have the best chances of retaining species. Areas where those criteria are low will need more investment in order to reach the desired conservation outcomes, the researchers report.

Among the most vulnerable regions of the world are southern and southeastern Asia, western and central Europe, eastern South America, and southern Australia, according to the researchers' data. The most vulnerable regions is this study differ from those highlighted in other studies which only factor climate change exposure.

"Effective conservation strategies must anticipate not only how species and habitats will cope with future climate change, but how humans will respond to these challenges," said John Robinson, Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science at WCS. "To that end, maintaining the integrity of the world's ecosystems will be the most important means of safeguarding the natural world and our own future."