Table 6.

Examples of adaptation actions that focus on the use of refugia as a means of supporting resilience; many of these options are not yet proven and require testing

Adaptation approach: identify refugia
National Forests (Joyce and others 2008)
✓ Use the paleological record and historical ecological studies to identify environments buffered against climate change, which would be good candidates for long-term conservation
National Parks (Baron and others 2008)
✓ Create or protect refugia for valued aquatic species at risk to the effects of early snowmelt on river flow
National Wildlife Refuges (Scott and others 2008)
✓ Reforest riparian boundaries with native species to create shaded thermal refugia for fish species in rivers and streams
✓ Identify climate change refugia and acquire necessary land
Wild & Scenic Rivers (Palmer and others 2008)
✓ Plant riparian vegetation to provide fish and other organisms with refugia
✓ Acquire additional river reaches for the wild and scenic river where they contain naturally occurring refugia from climate change stressors
✓ Create side-channels and adjacent wetlands to provide refugia for species during droughts and floods
National Estuaries (Peterson and others 2008)
✓ Restore oyster reefs along a depth gradient to provide shallow water refugia for mobile species such as fish and crustaceans to retreat to in response to climate-induced deep water hypoxia/anoxia
Marine Protected Areas (Keller and others 2008)
✓ Identify and protect areas observed to be resistant to climate change effects or to recover quickly from climate-induced disturbances
✓ Establish dynamic marine protected areas defined by large-scale oceanographic features such as oceanic fronts where changes in types and abundances of organisms often occur