Climate Change and the Rocky Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 455

HISTORICAL 2020s

2050s 2080s

Figure 20.8. The 30-year mean date of complete snow removal for the historical, 2020, 2050,
and 2080 periods in the North Saskatchewan watershed Canada. Where complete snow
removal does not occur (i.e., higher elevations), the date of minimum SWE is used (from
MacDonald et al. 2012).

Understanding the interactions between climate shifts and existing stressors
is important to identifying which species and ecosystems are likely to be
affected by projected changes and why they are likely to be vulnerable.
Vulnerability assessments can be used to identify populations and habitats
at risk for conservation management. Although broad-scale assessments
are valuable for predicting species' vulnerabilities to climate warming
and for raising awareness within the scientifi c community, they generally