AbstractBioMap 2.0: A Conservation Vision for a Changing ClimateTrack: Ecology and Conservation Author The Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) calls for the identification, prioritization, and protection of lands that best provide viable wildlife habitat in a future made uncertain by climate change. The product of a collaboration between the Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, The University of Massachusetts, and the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, BioMap 2.0 spatially defines those resilient lands and provides the scientifically rigorous foundation for their protection. BioMap 2.0 combines core habitat for rare and declining SWAP species with newly identified, modeled areas of high ecological integrity. Measures of landscape connectivity, ecological resilience, and relative vulnerability to climate change are applied to these habitats to capture their most viable examples across the state. The result is a strategy to safeguard the breadth of biodiversity across Massachusetts into the future, as well as a model for other states to enhance their own plans with climate considerations. Jessica Dyson The Nature Conservancy 205 Portland St Suite 400 Boston, Massachusetts 02114 United States Phone: (617) 227-7017 E-mail: jdyson@tnc.org |