Global Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most serious long-term threats to healthy populations of fish and wildlife in Oregon and globally. The effects of global climate change on wildlife and habitats include not only the direct impacts of changing temperatures, but also:

• Earlier arrival of spring conditions and changes in the timing of biological events such as migration, reproduction, and flowering, potentially leading to mismatches in the life cycles of interdependent species;
  
  
• Rising sea levels, leading to increased coastal erosion, coastal and river-mouth flooding, saltwater intrusion into coastal freshwater
  
  
• wetlands and water tables, and loss of estuary wetlands and other coastal habitats;
  
  
• Arrival of new pests and pathogens and increased insect damage from existing pests in some forest ecosystems;
  
  
• Increased introduction, spread, and dominance of invasive plant and animal species;
  
  
• Drying of some wetlands and headwater streams, and;
  
  
• Acidification of ocean waters and changes in plant photosynthesis as the direct result of increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

Climate Change Publications

• Bibliography: Climate change impacts on Oregon fish, wildlife and habitats (pdf)
• Global climate change Key Conservation Issue: Oregon Conservation Strategy
• Climate Change and Oregon’s Intertidal Habitats (pdf)
• Climate Change and Oregon’s Nearshore Open Water Habitat (pdf)
• Climate Change and Oregon’s Subtidal Habitats (pdf)
• Climate Change and Oregon’s Estuaries (pdf)
• Potential Impacts of Global Climate Change in Oregon’s Nearshore Ocean: Technical Supplement (pdf)

Workshops

• Estuaries: Climate Change and Conservation Planning (pdf)
• Oregon’s oak-dominated habitats: Conservation planning (pdf)
• Oregon’s Northern Basin and Range: Climate change (pdf)