Biodiversity, climate change, and adaptation in the Mediterranean

• Potential for, and limits to, adaptation to environmental changes are critical for resilience and risk mitigation. The Mediterranean basin is a mosaic of biodiversity-rich ecosystems long affected by human influence, whose resilience is now questioned by climate change. After reviewing the different components of biological adaptation, we present the main characteristics of marine and terrestrial biodiversity in the Mediterranean basin and of the pressures they face. Taking climatic trends into consideration, we discuss the adaptive potential of a range of ecosystems dominated by species without active dispersal. We argue that the high heterogeneity of Mediterranean landscapes and seascapes constitutes a laboratory for the study of adaptation when environmental conditions change rapidly and may provide opportunities for adaptation and adaptability of species and ecosystems. Adaptive management in the Mediterranean can and should harness the nature-based solutions offered by both ecological and evolutionary processes for increasing the resilience of ecosystems to climate change.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

adaptive management

biodiversity

biological adaptation

climate

change

marine ecosystems

Mediterranean

terrestrial ecosystems

coral corallium-rubrum

phenotypic plasticity

ocean acidification

evolutionary responses

posidonia-oceanica

nitrogen deposition

population-dynamics

plant biodiversity

adaptive evolution

genetic

diversity

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)