The greenhouse-effect and nature reserves

Current human development and population trends suggest to all but the very optimistic that by the next century most other surviving terrestrial species may well be relegated to small patches of their original habitat, patches isolated by vast areas of human-dominated urban and agricultural lands. Without heroic measures of habitat conservation and intelligent management, hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species could become extinct by the end of this century, with more to follow in the next. In this paper, we will identify problems caused by climate change that affect biological communities, examine the particular difficulties faced by species in biological reserves, and suggest management options. Although we recognize that dealing with short-term extinction threats alone will strain the resources of conservationists, we feel that the possible negative effects of global warming could be so severe that conservation plans should be amended to reflect knowledge of climatic effects as soon as it becomes available. Decisions about the siting and desgin of reserves and assumptions about how much management will be needed in the future must reflect the increased demands, both economic and biological, of global warming.