Journal Article

Conserving climate‐change refugia: Insights from research and practice

Stralberg, Diana, Słowińska, Sandra, John, Aji, Krawchuk, Meg A., Kehm, Gregory, Keppel, Gunnar, Dreiss, Lindsay M., Lawler, Joshua J., Hovel, Rachel A., Jennings, Megan K., Caven, Andrew J., Hua, Melissa, Tourville, Jordon C., Stolar, Jessica, Thorne, James H., Nadeau, Christopher P., Lyon, Lauren M., Mozelewski, Tina, Morelli, Toni Lyn, Langdon, Stephen F., Zuckerberg, Benjamin, Meigs, Garrett W., Cavalieri, Cybil Nicole, Mora‐Gonzalez, Melissa

2026

Overview

As the impacts of anthropogenic climate change increase, conservation of climate‐change refugia has become a key strategy for effective environmental stewardship. Over the last 5 years, the field of climate‐change refugia conservation has made exciting advances, shifting from concepts and theory to refugia mapping and implementation. However, few studies have advanced to action on the ground; while 84% of studies identified and mapped refugia, only 4% involved implementing management action. Moreover, taxonomic and geographic gaps remain, with most studies focused on terrestrial plants and vertebrates in Europe and North America. Here, we outline impediments to implementation following the steps of the Climate‐Change Refugia Conservation Cycle. Based on a systematic literature review, we elucidate advances and obstacles with examples from a diversity of systems and sectors from across the world and highlight emerging work bridging the gap between research and implementation. Climate‐change refugia conservation is a strategy to reduce the impacts of climate change on natural and cultural resources. Although there are still gaps in implementation, there have been great advances in refugia science in recent years. Addressing obstacles will help increase the implementation and effectiveness of this area of climate adaptation.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,John Wiley & Sons, Inc,Wiley
• Subject: Anthropogenic factors / Climate adaptation / Climate change / climate refugia / Conservation / Environmental stewardship / Human influences / knowledge coproduction / landscape planning / Literature reviews / microrefugia / Objectives / Precipitation / Refugia / resource management / systematic literature review / Systematic review / translational ecology / Vertebrates