Species Impacts from Climate Change in BC

1
Species Impacts from Climate Change in BC

• Tory Stevens
• Ministry of Environment
• ACT Communities in Jeopardy
• March 31, 2008
• Simon Fraser University Vancouver

2
Outline

• What is Biodiversity BC?
• What is the Status Report?
• Terrestrial realm
• Freshwater realm
• Marine realm
• Traditional phenological knowledge

3
Biodiversity BC Chronology

• Oct 2004 BC Trust for Public Lands announced to
  support biodiversity conservation
• BC Conservation Lands Forum established as a
  government-ENGO partnership to manage Trust
• CPTC created as an independent committee under
  Forum to develop B.C. biodiversity strategy
• 2005 CPTC established - governance framework
  and science foundation initiated
• 2006 Biodiversity BC set up as the
  organizational entity responsible for developing
  biodiversity action plan including steering
  committee, secretariat and 2 main subcommittees
  (technical and plan development)

4
Biodiversity BC The Status Report

• An overview of the current status of biodiversity
  in British Columbia including

5
Framework

• Levels of organization genes, species,
  ecosystems
• Realms Terrestrial, Freshwater Aquatic, Overlap
  with Marine
• Biodiversity attributes composition, structure,
  function

6
Terrestrial Realm

• Yellow cedar, Western redcedar, Grand fir
• Dothistroma
• MPB
• Birds
• Mammals

7
Yellow Cedar Decline in Crow Lagoon, BC
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Western Redcedar and Grand Fir

• Susceptible to summer drought
• Pattern of decline in areas that have shallow
  soils
• Grand fir began dying about 5 years ago in the
  municipalities on southern Vancouver Island
• Western redcedar is dying all along the east
  coast of VI pronounced branchlet drop

9
Dothistroma septosporum

• Fungus that causes needle blight in pines

• Dramatic increase in incidence in NW BC including
  extensive mortality in pine plantations

Alex Woods
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Dothistroma

• Coincides with increased frequency of warm rain
  events in summer
• Climate trend is more likely part of directional
  global change not decadel oscillation

Alex Woods
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Summer Trends 1971-2000
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Mountain Pine Beetle

• By 2006, effects of climate change had expanded
  suitable MPB habitat by 75
• These changes are continuing

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Winter Minimum Temp. Trend1971-2000
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Birds

• Timing changes
• Range changes

White-throated swift
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Earliest arrival Common Loon (interior B.C.,
53º - 55º latitude)
r2 0.57 p lt0.001
Source Bunnell, F., K. Squires, M. Preston and
W. Campbell 2007
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Arrival Departure Times
Arrival
Departure
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Yellow Warbler - Change in Relative Abundance
1960s
1990s
sampled, no Yellow Warbler
Relative Abundance
not sampled
18
Range changes

• 25 birds found in BC in 2006 that were not here
  in 1947
• Climate changes (drying of habitats to south
  warmer winters in the north)
• Still reinhabiting formerly glaciated landscape
• Well adapted to human modified landscapes
• From Quayle, Ramsay, and Fraser 2007

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Mammals

• Pika
• Nevada and California (USA)
• White-tailed deer, cougar, bobcat
• Expanded range

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Aquatic Realm

• Sockeye salmon - Early Stuart run
• Eulachon

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• Location of Stuart Lake system

Cottonwood dugout canoe in Fraser Lake circa 1908
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Early Stuart sockeye timing

• Migration time has shifted 5 days due to warmer
  sea surface temperatures
• Corresponds to earlier seasonal maximum river
  flow
• When flow recedes, water temperature rises to
  stressful levels causing disease outbreaks

Trend in peak date of passage of Early Stuart
sockeye past Hells Gate (Macdonald et al. 2000).
23
Migration Success

• Summer Run Sockeye and Temperature at Hells
  Gate, 1978-1998

Source Indicators of Climate Change for BC. MOE.
2002.
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Eulachon

• Eulachon abundance has declined in many rivers
  throughout their distribution in recent years.
• Sudden drop in returns to several rivers in 1994,
  most notably in the Fraser and Columbia.
• Eulachon have virtually disappeared in California
  and in the last two years they have not been seen
  in several BC rivers -- Stikine, Unuk, Skeena,
  Kitimat, Kemano, Kitlope, Bella Coola, Kimsquit,
  Owikeeno, and Kingcome Rivers.

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Eulachon Decline

• Trawl fishery
• Increased predation
• Alterations to river hydrology due to logging
• Climate change
• Combination of the above

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Marine Realm

• Macroalgae
• Dictyoneuropsis reticulata
• Common in California
• Jane Watson not present in 1991 in the Goslings
  reported in 1994 most abundant kelp in 2007
• Eisenia arborea
• Considered a more southern species
• Jane Watson absent in 1991 approximately 20 of
  stalked kelps in 2007

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Cassins Auklet 1978 - 1999
Data from Doug Bertram, SFU
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First Nations observations

• Traditional phenological knowledge

• Phenological cues for judging harvesting times
  and seasonal animal movements plant growth,
  flower blooming, bird song, insect hatch
• Gitgaat of Hartley Bay use nettle growth to
  judge readiness of red laver seaweed for harvest
• From Turner and Clifton 2007

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Summary

• Species are only part of the story
• Interactions are all affected
• Ecosystems shift
• Structures altered
• Functions are disrupted