CASE STUDY 4.4: Climate change impacts on threatened species and ecosystems – preliminary review and scoping
The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area is one of 19 listed World Heritage properties in Australia. Extending across 40 reserves on Australia’s east coast, the property is recognised by UNESCO for its examples of major stages of the Earth’s evolutionary history, ongoing geological and biological processes, and exceptional biological diversity. The changing climate poses a threat to the unique habitats in the World Heritage Area and to the species that live there.
We undertook a scoping exercise to determine ways that climate change science could meaningfully contribute to the management of Gondwana Rainforests WHA in a changing climate. A central activity was a workshop bringing together experts from key agencies to discuss available climate change projections for relevant regions and to identify specific data needs for ongoing climate change adaptation planning.
The case study identified cloud projections as an important gap in available information. Building on the preliminary work in this case study, these projections are now being developed in a subsequent case study.
Under this case study the ESCC Hub also provided researchers in the Threatened Species Recovery (TSR) Hub with climate change projections data that will improve modelling of abundance of greater gliders in the Victorian Central Highlands. More accurate modelling will improve the quality of information available to conservation managers tasked with managing this vulnerable species.
Completed: March 2019
More information: Dr Rob Colman, Bureau of Meteorology
Publications and products
- Workshop summary: Climate change impacts on the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia
- Climate change impacts on the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (workshop report)
- Determining climate change impacts on Victoria’s greater gliders (case study fact sheet)