Identifying Vulnerable Species and Adaptation Strategies in the Southern Sierra of California Using Historical Resurveys

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Authors

University of California, Berkeley, Davis

Published

2012

Description

Small mammals have shifted their elevation ranges in the Sierra Nevada. We questioned whether this shift can be linked to changes in habitat distribution, whether changes in population abundance match range dynamics, and how the shift affects predictions of future small mammal distribution. We merged data from mammal records of the Grinnell Resurvey Project, vegetation from the Wieslander Vegetation Type Maps and CALVEG and National Park Service, and downscaled PRISM climate data to meet these objectives. The results of this analysis highlight the need to determine these species life history traits, habitat preferences and temporal dynamics in order to identify which species are positively and negatively sensitive, and which are relatively insensitive to future climate and land cover change.

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