Impacts of Climate Change on Species and Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

There is currently a large and ever increasing interest in the impact of climate change on our environment, which stems from a rising awareness of the consequences a changing climate can have for a variety of aspects in our natural world. An alteration in population dynamics and distributions of species are among the most fundamental impacts of climate change on taxa. Entire ecosystems may be affected. Furthermore, with a changing climate, the need for good conservation planning increases. Species may be able to cope with the direct effects of climate change, such as raising temperatures, but perhaps not so with indirect effects such as increased competition and predation by invasive alien species. To be able to draw up effective conservation plans, we need a better understanding of how species and ecosystems have been affected by past climate change and will be affected by future climate change, not only with regard to shifting distribution ranges but also considering phenological and behavioral aspects, as well as interactions with other species and possible adaptations. This requires, among others, sufficient and trustworthy data on species’ ecology, past, current, and future presence and environmental drivers of geographic distribution ranges, and advanced methodological approaches.

In this Special Issue, we aim to outline some of the current work on impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems. The goal is to establish a platform for further advancement of our knowledge on impacts of past and future climate change on species and ecosystems. We aim to publish a series of articles that cover various topics, targeting a multitude of species across taxa and ecosystems, and discuss the challenges and benefits of current methodological approaches, research directions, and needs for future research. In particular, we welcome submissions on the following topics:

• Impacts of past climate change on ecosystems or species distributions;
• Impacts of future climate change on ecosystems or species distributions;
• Impacts on species abundance;
• Impacts on species community compositions;
• Impacts on phenology of species;
• Impacts on behavior of species;
• Impacts on species interactions;
• Adaptation of species to climate change;
• Methodological approaches to assess impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems.

We welcome empirical studies, original research, meta-analyses, and novel methodologies, as well as reviews, perspectives, and opinions.

Dr. Anouschka Hof
Guest Editor

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