Biodiversity monitoring is essential to support climate change adaptation. High-quality, long-term monitoring data can provide a warning system for detecting the effects of climate change on species and ecosystems. Monitoring data can also be used for the construction and validation of future projections of species and ecosystem distributions, the development and measurement of ecological indicators, and evaluation of adaptive management actions related to climate change.
The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute monitors over 2500 species in terrestrial and wetland habitats in Alberta through field data collection and remote sensing along a systematic grid of sites spaced 20km apart. As the only province-wide, long-term (since 2003) biodiversity monitoring program, the ABMI has an essential role to play in providing data to support climate change adaptation. This report discusses how the relative abundance data from the ABMI’s monitoring program can be used to
detect changes in species distributions, even if their range edges do not occur in Alberta. We also discuss how recent implementations of new technology and remote sensing are improving monitoring of the timing of biological events like migration or spring green-up. Use of ABMI samples for understanding genetic variation and changes in genetic structure is identified as a key area where ABMI data can also be used to understand how biodiversity is adapting to climate change.
Finally, we discuss gaps in the ABMI’s monitoring data that, if addressed, would improve our ability to both predict and detect the impacts of climate change on Alberta’s biodiversity. This would include surveying at a finer spatial resolution along ecotones, like the boundary between the Parkland and Boreal Natural Regions and along elevation gradients in provincial hill systems. Expansion of the monitoring program to include collection of weather data like temperature and moisture is also
recommended.
Adapting Monitoring to More Effectively Assess the Impacts of Climate Change on Alberta’s Biodiversity
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