Toward a climate-informed North American protected areas network: Incorporating climate-change refugia and corridors in conservation planning

Global and national commitments to slow biodiversity loss by expanding protected area networks also provide opportunities to evaluate conservation priorities in the face of climate change. Using recently developed indicators of climatic macrorefugia, environmental diversity, and corridors, we conducted a systematic, climate-informed prioritization of conservation values across North America. We explicitly considered complementarity of multiple conservation objectives, capturing key niche-based temperature and moisture thresholds for 324 tree species and 268 songbird species. Conservation rankings were influenced most strongly by climate corridors and species-specific refugia layers. Although areas of high conservation value under climate change were partially aligned with existing protected areas, similar to 80% of areas within the top quintile of biome-level conservation values lack formal protection. Results from this study and application of our approach elsewhere can help improve the long-term value of conservation investments at multiple spatial scales.