Ecosystems and extreme weather events

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Conservation planners in an era of climate change attempt to model and predict outcomes of mitigation strategies for the near and distant future. Global responses to the climate crisis generally have focused on the ways ecosystems will respond to mean, long-term changes in global temperatures (warming oceans, sea-level rises, and shifting seasons). But short-term, extreme weather and temperature events could challenge these best-laid plans or even make them irrelevant. According to a group of researchers from Australia and the US, led by Sean L. Maxwell, “Extreme weather and climate events…such as cyclones, floods, heat waves and drought, have become more frequent and intense in many regions of the world as a consequence of anthropogenic climate change. This pattern is likely to accelerate.”