CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS FOR PROTECTED AREAS - A NEW PRSPECTIVE TASK FOR CONSERVATION SCIENCE
In connection with climate change on the territory of Russia the challenge of species' and ecosystems' conservation in Protected Areas becomes more difficult. Additional adaptation measures should be implemented. It is necessary to assess the vulnerability of the territory for their development: what exactly and to what extent is exposed to adverse climate impacts, which effects and how often they can be? The accuracy of the prognosis depends on the degree of physical-geographical information about areas, the ecology of the species and the use of climate information. The analysis will allow to develop an action plan, which will be relevant to the current situation of extreme unstable climate and prognosis of leading Roshydromet and RAS research institutes. Some methods of climate vulnerability assessment have been developed: from very simple and basic up to detailed and accurate. They were tested in different natural zones and demonstrated effectiveness and dependence from collected data. The conservation science has accumulated high quality long-term information about nature stage at PAs. It is faced now with a new challenge: to combine these data with climatic information to determine perspective effects for specific territories.