Species relocation in the face of climate change

ESA Annual meeting going three days strong...
The ESA Annual Meeting has entered it's 3rd full day of activities. You can see today's schedule here. One event that really catches my eye is a symposium on managed relocation, a contraversial technique for conserving species in the face of climate change. Global warming is already shifting the distribution of many species northwards and scientists expect the trend to intensify. Unfortunately, widespread habitat fragmentation will likely prevent many species from migrating to track changing climate conditions. One way of addressing this issue is by establishing new populations of species in areas outside of their historic range.

Assisted migration or overstepping boundaries...
The Torreya Guardians already are practicing assisted migration to prevent the extinction of Torreya taxifola, an evergreen conifer tree historically found only along a 65 kilometer stretch of the Apalachicola River of Torreya Guardians in front of Torreya taxifolia established in North Carolina. Image from www.torreyaguardians.orgnorthern Florida and the adjacent sliver of southern Georgia. Now faced with extinction from an unknown cause - perhaps a variety of fungal pathogens - volunteers are working to establish the tree in other areas farther north.

AT the ESA symposium, eight presentations are examining the potential issues with the practice of managed relocation and how to address them. One of the main issues is our lack of understanding of exactly how climate change will affect species and their habitat. Clearly extremely complex factors are at work in this relationship, and managed relocation requires a near-complete understanding of what's going on.

Equally important is the issue of how relocation of species to new geographic ranges will affect the ecosystems of those areas. Today, ecosystems across the world suffer from decline in native biodiversity due to past well-intentioned efforts by people to establish exotic species without understanding of the consequences of their actions.

Then, there's the ethical issues inherent in assisted migration. At what point are we overstepping what should be our role in nature? How do we choose which species are worth relocating? What happens when saving one species means harming another? Related to this are the legal issues of how we as a society govern this controversial method.

In the following link, you can read about the symposium and each of the presentations in more detail.