Scientists are urging a new approach to protecting vulnerable species from the effects of climate change

Concerned about the loss of biodiversity worldwide due to climate change, an international team of scientists has proposed a new approach to managing vulnerable landscapes, focusing on sites least affected by changing weather. These places, known as climate change refuges, experience weather conditions that are most favorable for their survival and may be the key to reducing species extinction, ecologists say.

In a new paper written by scientists from Australia, Canada, the United States and Hungary, scientists set out a framework for identifying, protecting and restoring refuges from climate change.

Document published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution calls for an alternative to traditional conservation efforts that have focused on creating static protected areas. (Candy Gibson, University of South Australia, more at phys.org)