Reeve Connor, Robichaud Jessica A, Fernandes Timothy, Bates Amanda E, Bramburger Andrew J, Brownscombe Jacob W, Davy Christina M, Henry Hugh A L, McMeans Bailey C, Moise Eric R D, Sharma Sapna, Smith Paul A, Studd Emily K, O'Sullivan Antóin, Sutton Alex O, Templer Pamela H, Cooke Steven J
Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory, Department of Biology and Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Science, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada.
Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd., Mississauga, Ontario, L5L 1C6, Canada.
Conserv Physiol. 2023 May 9;11(1):coad027. doi: 10.1093/conphys/coad027. eCollection 2023.
Winter at high latitudes is characterized by low temperatures, dampened light levels and short photoperiods which shape ecological and evolutionary outcomes from cells to populations to ecosystems. Advances in our understanding of winter biological processes (spanning physiology, behaviour and ecology) highlight that biodiversity threats (e.g. climate change driven shifts in reproductive windows) may interact with winter conditions, leading to greater ecological impacts. As such, conservation and management strategies that consider winter processes and their consequences on biological mechanisms may lead to greater resilience of high altitude and latitude ecosystems. Here, we use well-established threat and action taxonomies produced by the International Union of Conservation of Nature-Conservation Measures Partnership (IUCN-CMP) to synthesize current threats to biota that emerge during, or as the result of, winter processes then discuss targeted management approaches for winter-based conservation. We demonstrate the importance of considering winter when identifying threats to biodiversity and deciding on appropriate management strategies across species and ecosystems. We confirm our expectation that threats are prevalent during the winter and are especially important considering the physiologically challenging conditions that winter presents. Moreover, our findings emphasize that climate change and winter-related constraints on organisms will intersect with other stressors to potentially magnify threats and further complicate management. Though conservation and management practices are less commonly considered during the winter season, we identified several potential or already realized applications relevant to winter that could be beneficial. Many of the examples are quite recent, suggesting a potential turning point for applied winter biology. This growing body of literature is promising but we submit that more research is needed to identify and address threats to wintering biota for targeted and proactive conservation. We suggest that management decisions consider the importance of winter and incorporate winter specific strategies for holistic and mechanistic conservation and resource management.
高纬度地区的冬季具有低温、光照水平降低和光周期短的特点，这些因素塑造了从细胞到种群再到生态系统的生态和进化结果。我们对冬季生物过程（涵盖生理学、行为学和生态学）的理解取得了进展，这凸显出生物多样性威胁（例如气候变化导致繁殖窗口的变化）可能与冬季条件相互作用，从而产生更大的生态影响。因此，考虑冬季过程及其对生物机制影响的保护和管理策略，可能会增强高海拔和高纬度生态系统的恢复力。在这里，我们使用由国际自然保护联盟-保护措施伙伴关系（IUCN-CMP）制定的完善的威胁和行动分类法，来综合冬季过程中出现的或因冬季过程而产生的对生物群的当前威胁，然后讨论基于冬季的保护的针对性管理方法。我们证明了在识别生物多样性威胁以及针对物种和生态系统制定适当管理策略时考虑冬季的重要性。我们证实了我们的预期，即威胁在冬季普遍存在，而且考虑到冬季所呈现的生理挑战性条件，这些威胁尤为重要。此外，我们的研究结果强调，气候变化和与冬季相关的对生物体的限制将与其他压力源相互交织，有可能放大威胁并使管理工作更加复杂。尽管在冬季较少考虑保护和管理措施，但我们确定了一些与冬季相关的潜在或已实现的应用，这些应用可能会有所帮助。许多例子都是最近的，这表明应用冬季生物学可能正处于一个转折点。这一不断增长的文献很有前景，但我们认为需要更多研究来识别和应对越冬生物群面临的威胁，以进行有针对性的积极保护。我们建议管理决策要考虑冬季的重要性，并纳入针对冬季的具体策略，以实现全面和基于机制的保护及资源管理。
