Strategic Approaches for Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment across the National Park System

Published research from U.S. national parks shows that climate change is melting snowpack and glaciers, shifting the ranges of plants and animals, altering wildfire patterns, raising sea level, and causing other impacts. Continued climate change in the future threatens the health and functioning of plant and animal species, ecosystems, cultural sites, and infrastructure in national parks. Yet, published scientific information on vulnerability to climate change exists for a limited set of resources in a fraction of the national park system. Currently, published spatial analyses that examine exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity cover selected resources in approximately 142 national parks out of 407 total. Consequently, in many cases, national park managers do not have adequate information to plan adaptation of resource management to reduce future climate change impacts on resources. Most published analyses have examined natural resources, so the lack of information is particularly acute for cultural resources and park infrastructure.