Ecological mechanisms underpinning climate adaptation services

TLDR

Ecosystem services, valued for material and cultural benefits, are extended by climate adaptation services—benefits from ecosystems that enhance human resilience to climate change—expanding the framework to aid decision‑makers in uncertain futures. The study presents a generic framework to operationalise the concept of climate adaptation services. The framework comprises four steps to identify intrinsic ecological mechanisms that sustain ecosystem services during change, and was applied to four contrasting Australian ecosystems. Comparative analyses reveal that adaptation services arise from common mechanisms—vegetation structural diversity, keystone species or functional groups, response diversity, and landscape connectivity—which support functional persistence and community reassembly under severe climate change, informing adaptation planning.

Abstract

Abstract Ecosystem services are typically valued for their immediate material or cultural benefits to human wellbeing, supported by regulating and supporting services. Under climate change, with more frequent stresses and novel shocks, 'climate adaptation services', are defined as the benefits to people from increased social ability to respond to change, provided by the capability of ecosystems to moderate and adapt to climate change and variability. They broaden the ecosystem services framework to assist decision makers in planning for an uncertain future with new choices and options. We present a generic framework for operationalising the adaptation services concept. Four steps guide the identification of intrinsic ecological mechanisms that facilitate the maintenance and emergence of ecosystem services during periods of change, and so materialise as adaptation services. We applied this framework for four contrasted Australian ecosystems. Comparative analyses enabled by the operational framework suggest that adaptation services that emerge during trajectories of ecological change are supported by common mechanisms: vegetation structural diversity, the role of keystone species or functional groups, response diversity and landscape connectivity, which underpin the persistence of function and the reassembly of ecological communities under severe climate change and variability. Such understanding should guide ecosystem management towards adaptation planning.