Abstract
The impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems are already evident, and effects during the next century will be dramatic and significant irrespective of which of the IPCC climate change scenarios that comes true. Thus, strategies to adapt to a warmer climate are needed, but methods are lacking. Ecological restoration can be a primary strategy to increase the resilience of ecosystems threatened by climate change. This project tests whether ecological restoration of riparian zones along streams can be an effective way to increase their resilience to climate change effects. As more of precipitation falls as snow instead of rain, spring flood peaks will become lower and winter flows higher. This threatens species-rich riparian ecosystems, which depend on recurrent floods, and plant species from the upper and lower ends are at risk of extinction. By relating the presence of riparian plant species to current hydrological conditions, and with the help of forecasts of future stream flows, I will predict which species that will increase and decrease with a future climate. To evaluate if restoration of streams affected by timber floating increases habitat availability to species threatened by climate-driven hydrological changes, I will use projections of future stream flows to forecast changes in habitat availability, and compare projections of future habitat availability to riparian species between pairs of restored and unrestored reaches.
Sweden