Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions.
Intentional moving of species threatened by climate change is actively being discussed as a conservation approach. The debate, empirical studies, and policy development, however, are impeded by an inconsistent articulation of the idea. The discrepancy is demonstrated by the varying use of terms, suc...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102979 |
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| author | Maria H Hällfors Elina M Vaara Marko Hyvärinen Markku Oksanen Leif E Schulman Helena Siipi Susanna Lehvävirta |
| author_facet | Maria H Hällfors Elina M Vaara Marko Hyvärinen Markku Oksanen Leif E Schulman Helena Siipi Susanna Lehvävirta |
| author_sort | Maria H Hällfors |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Intentional moving of species threatened by climate change is actively being discussed as a conservation approach. The debate, empirical studies, and policy development, however, are impeded by an inconsistent articulation of the idea. The discrepancy is demonstrated by the varying use of terms, such as assisted migration, assisted colonisation, or managed relocation, and their multiple definitions. Since this conservation approach is novel, and may for instance lead to legislative changes, it is important to aim for terminological consistency. The objective of this study is to analyse the suitability of terms and definitions used when discussing the moving of organisms as a response to climate change. An extensive literature search and review of the material (868 scientific publications) was conducted for finding hitherto used terms (N = 40) and definitions (N = 75), and these were analysed for their suitability. Based on the findings, it is argued that an appropriate term for a conservation approach relating to aiding the movement of organisms harmed by climate change is assisted migration defined as follows: Assisted migration means safeguarding biological diversity through the translocation of representatives of a species or population harmed by climate change to an area outside the indigenous range of that unit where it would be predicted to move as climate changes, were it not for anthropogenic dispersal barriers or lack of time. The differences between assisted migration and other conservation translocations are also discussed. A wide adoption of the clear and distinctive term and definition provided would allow more focused research on the topic and enable consistent implementation as practitioners could have the same understanding of the concept. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d2591b9453fa4b4a86b21a6ce9754bbd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-d2591b9453fa4b4a86b21a6ce9754bbd2025-08-20T03:56:05ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0197e10297910.1371/journal.pone.0102979Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions.Maria H HällforsElina M VaaraMarko HyvärinenMarkku OksanenLeif E SchulmanHelena SiipiSusanna LehvävirtaIntentional moving of species threatened by climate change is actively being discussed as a conservation approach. The debate, empirical studies, and policy development, however, are impeded by an inconsistent articulation of the idea. The discrepancy is demonstrated by the varying use of terms, such as assisted migration, assisted colonisation, or managed relocation, and their multiple definitions. Since this conservation approach is novel, and may for instance lead to legislative changes, it is important to aim for terminological consistency. The objective of this study is to analyse the suitability of terms and definitions used when discussing the moving of organisms as a response to climate change. An extensive literature search and review of the material (868 scientific publications) was conducted for finding hitherto used terms (N = 40) and definitions (N = 75), and these were analysed for their suitability. Based on the findings, it is argued that an appropriate term for a conservation approach relating to aiding the movement of organisms harmed by climate change is assisted migration defined as follows: Assisted migration means safeguarding biological diversity through the translocation of representatives of a species or population harmed by climate change to an area outside the indigenous range of that unit where it would be predicted to move as climate changes, were it not for anthropogenic dispersal barriers or lack of time. The differences between assisted migration and other conservation translocations are also discussed. A wide adoption of the clear and distinctive term and definition provided would allow more focused research on the topic and enable consistent implementation as practitioners could have the same understanding of the concept.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102979 |
| spellingShingle | Maria H Hällfors Elina M Vaara Marko Hyvärinen Markku Oksanen Leif E Schulman Helena Siipi Susanna Lehvävirta Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions. PLoS ONE |
| title | Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions. |
| title_full | Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions. |
| title_fullStr | Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions. |
| title_short | Coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change - a systematic review of the terminology and definitions. |
| title_sort | coming to terms with the concept of moving species threatened by climate change a systematic review of the terminology and definitions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102979 |
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