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Climate-change adaptation focuses on conducting and translating research to minimize the dire impacts of anthropogenic climate change, including threats to biodiversity and human welfare. One adaptation strategy is to focus conservation on climate-change refugia (that is, areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that enable persistence of valued physical, ecological, and sociocultural resources). In this Special Issue, recent methodological and conceptual advances in refugia science will be highlighted. Advances in this emerging subdiscipline are improving scientific understanding and conservation in the face of climate change by considering scale and ecosystem dynamics, and looking beyond climate exposure to sensitivity and adaptive capacity. We propose considering refugia in the context of a multifaceted, long-term, network-based approach, as temporal and spatial gradients of ecological persistence that can act as "slow lanes" rather than areas of stasis. After years of discussion confined primarily to the scientific literature, researchers and resource managers are now working together to put refugia conservation into practice.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159909.].

Refugia have long been studied from paleontological and biogeographical perspectives to understand how populations persisted during past periods of unfavorable climate. Recently, researchers have applied the idea to contemporary landscapes to identify climate change refugia, here defined as areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that enable persistence of valued physical, ecological, and socio-cultural resources. We differentiate historical and contemporary views, and characterize physical and ecological processes that create and maintain climate change refugia. We then delineate how refugia can fit into existing decision support frameworks for climate adaptation and describe seven steps for managing them. Finally, we identify challenges and opportunities for operationalizing the concept of climate change refugia. Managing climate change refugia can be an important option for conservation in the face of ongoing climate change.

Diadromous fish populations face multiple challenges along their migratory routes. These challenges include suboptimal water quality, harvest, and barriers to longitudinal and lateral connectivity. Interactions among factors influencing migration success make it challenging to assess management options for improving migratory fish conditions along riverine migration corridors. We describe a spatially explicit simulation model that integrates complex individual behaviors of fall-run Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and summer-run steelhead trout (O. mykiss) during migration, responds to variable habitat conditions over a large extent of the Columbia River, and links migration corridor conditions to fish condition outcomes. The model is built around a mechanistic behavioral decision tree that drives individual interactions of fish within their simulated environments. By simulating several thermalscapes with alternative scenarios of thermal refuge availability, we examined how behavioral thermoregulation in cold-water refuges influenced migrating fish conditions. Outcomes of the migration corridor simulation model show that cold-water refuges can provide relief from exposure to high water temperatures, but do not substantially contribute to energy conservation by migrating adults. Simulated cooling of the Columbia River decreased reliance on cold-water refuges and there were slight reductions in migratory energy expenditure. This modeling of simulated thermalscapes provides a framework for assessing the contribution of cold-water refuges to the success of migrating fishes, but any final determination will depend on analyzing fish survival and health for their entire migration, water temperature management goals and species recovery targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the argument for private-sector involvement in the distribution of government information, using U.S. patents as an example. Highlights include industry competitiveness; jobs creation; public access; identifying users; costs; user fees; existing systems of information dissemination; and implications of the Internet and NREN (National Research and Education Network). (Contains 45 notes.) (LRW)

Stable isotope analysis of diet switching by fishes often is hampered by slow turnover rates of the tissues analyzed (usually muscle or fins). We examined epidermal mucus as a potentially faster turnover 'tissue' that might provide a more rapid assessment of diet switching. In a controlled hatchery experiment, we switched the diet of juvenile steelhead (sea-run rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss) from a plant-based feed with low [delta][sup.13]C and [delta][sup.15]N to a fish-meal-based diet with higher delta values. We found mucus to provide a significantly more rapid response to diet switching (half-life = 36 days for [delta][sup.15]N, 30 days for [delta][sup.13]C) than muscle tissue (half-life = 94 days for [delta][sup.15]N, 136 days for [delta][sup.13]C), even for growing juvenile fish. Mucus may provide a rapid turnover 'tissue' for analysis of diet (or habitat) switching by fish. It has the additional advantage that it may be sampled nonlethally in some fishes, thereby avoiding problems in studying threatened or endangered species. This is the first report of the use of fish mucus in stable isotope analyses of fish tissues. Les analyses de changements de regime alimentaire chez les poissons au moyen des isotopes stables sont souvent entravees par les faibles taux de remplacement des tissus analyses (generalement les muscles ou les branchies). Nous evaluons l'utilisation du mucus epidermique comme [much less than] tissu [much greater than] a taux de renouvellement potentiellement plus eleve qui pourrait fournir une appreciation plus hative des changements de regime. Dans une experience en conditions controlees de pisciculture, nous avons modifie l'alimentation de jeunes truites arc-en-ciel anadromes (Oncorhynchus mykiss) d'un regime a base de plantes a [delta][sup.13]C et [delta][sup.15]N bas, a un regime a base de farine de poisson avec des valeurs plus elevees des deltas. Le mucus reagit significativement plus rapidement au changement de regime (demi-vie = 36 jours pour [delta][sup.15]N et 30 jours pour [delta][sup.13]C) que le muscle (demi-vie = 94 jours pour [delta][sup.15]N et 136 jours pour [delta][sup.13]C), meme chez les jeunes poissons en croissance. Le mucus peut donc constituer un [much less than] tissu [much greater than] a taux de renouvellement rapide pour l'analyse des changements de regime (ou d'habitat) chez les poissons. Il presente, de plus, l'avantage de pouvoir etre echantillonne chez certains poissons sans devoir sacrifier l'animal, ce qui evite quelques-uns des problemes associes a l'etude des especes menaces ou en voie de disparition. C'est la premiere fois que le mucus de poisson est utilise pour l'analyse des isotopes stables dans les tissus de poisson. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction The analysis of stable isotope ratios in fish can be a powerful tool for studying fish ecology, including, for example, movement of fish from one habitat (and diet) to [...]

Wigington, Parker J., Jr., Scott G. Leibowitz, Randy L. Comeleo, and Joseph L. Ebersole, 2012. Oregon Hydrologic Landscapes: A Classification Framework. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 1-20. DOI: 10.1111/jawr.12009 Abstract: There is a growing need for hydrologic classification systems that can provide a basis for broad-scale assessments of the hydrologic functions of landscapes and watersheds and their responses to stressors such as climate change. We developed a hydrologic landscape (HL) classification approach that describes factors of climate-watershed systems that control the hydrologic characteristics of watersheds. Our assessment units are incremental watersheds (i.e., headwater watersheds or areas draining directly into stream reaches). Major components of the classification include indices of annual climate, climate seasonality, aquifer permeability, terrain, and soil permeability. To evaluate the usefulness of our approach, we identified 30 rivers with long-term streamflow-gauging records and without major diversions and impoundments. We used statistical clustering to group the streams based on the shapes of their annual hydrographs. Comparison of the streamflow clusters and HL distributions within river basin clusters shows that the Oregon HL approach has the ability to provide insights about the expected hydrologic behavior of HLs and larger river basins. The Oregon HL approach has potential to be a useful framework for comparing hydrologic attributes of streams and rivers in the Pacific Northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution, spatially extensive climate grids can be useful in regional hydrologic applications. However, in regions where precipitation is dominated by snow, snowmelt models are often used to account for timing and magnitude of water delivery. We developed an empirical, nonlinear model to estimate 30-year means of monthly snowpack and snowmelt throughout Oregon. Precipitation and temperature for the period 1971-2000, derived from 400-m resolution PRISM data, and potential evapotranspiration (estimated from temperature and day length) drive the model. The model was calibrated using mean monthly data from 45 SNOTEL sites and accurately estimated snowpack at 25 validation sites: R2 = 0·76, Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) = 0·80. Calibrating it with data from all 70 SNOTEL sites gave somewhat better results ( R2 = 0·84, NSE = 0·85). We separately applied the model to SNOTEL stations located < 200 and ≥ 200 km from the Oregon coast, since they have different climatic conditions. The model performed equally well for both areas. We used the model to modify moisture surplus (precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration) to account for snowpack accumulation and snowmelt. The resulting values accurately reflect the shape and magnitude of runoff at a snow-dominated basin, with low winter values and a June peak. Our findings suggest that the model is robust with respect to different climatic conditions, and that it can be used to estimate potential runoff in snow-dominated basins. The model may allow high-resolution, regional hydrologic comparisons to be made across basins that are differentially affected by snowpack, and may prove useful for investigating regional hydrologic response to climate change. Published in 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]