ID: 613 / 62

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: THE KEY ROLE OF REFUGIA IN FACING THE GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY CRISIS

Abstract: Across the world, increasing temperatures and human pressures on ecosystems are causing species’ loss but also adaptation to new environmental conditions and range shifts. On the other hand, refugia are areas from microsite to landscape levels where species can shift and locally persist during adverse environmental conditions. Traditionally, refugia have been associated with locations supporting fairly stable climatic conditions sheltering species from severe temperature changes within short time periods. However, recent research has underlined that in an era dominated by human pressures on ecosystems, to also identify refugia with areas free from human activities is necessary. This is why in recent years the concept of refugium has conceptually extended in time (from glacial to interglacial periods) and space (from tropical and mountain to anthropized regions; from macro to micro): warm-stage refugia, marine refugia, urban refugia, Anthropocene refugia, micro-, meso- and macro-refugia, bio-cultural refugia, etc. In this framework, conservation practitioners are focusing attention on the multifaced concept of refugium that could assist them in better focusing conservation efforts and reduce plant diversity loss. This symposium aims to - Capture the state of the art of the novel concepts linked to refugia for biodiversity; - Review key standards of the refugium concept; - Discover new methods to record and monitor refugium areas and the associated species across the world; - Identify future directions for the conservation of species within refugia; - Coordinate efforts around refugium studies. This symposium will start with presentations and end with a group discussion. We plan to write a summary based on the output of this symposium.

Speaker 1: NAME: Toni Lyn Morelli INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION: Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts - USA EMAIL: tmorelli@usgs.gov TENTATIVE TALK TITLE: Climate Change Refugia Conservation for Climate Adaptation

Speaker 2: NAME: María Begoña García INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION: Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (CSIC) -Spain EMAIL: mariab@ipe.csic.es TENTATIVE TALK TITLE: Identifying, prioritising and managing biodiversity refugia in conservation efforts

Speaker 3: NAME: Zoltán Bátori INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION: Department of Ecology, University of Szeged - Hungary EMAIL: zbatory@gmail.com TENTATIVE TALK TITLE: Karst dolines as past, present and potential future microrefugia

Topics (Up to three): Conservation Biology

Topic 2: Biogeography / Phylogeography

Topic 3: Global Change Ecology

Justification: Recently, the concept of refugium has been associated with that of biodiversity conservation and is gaining importance among people concerned with safeguarding of species from extinction, both locally and globally. Finding new ways for species conservation is necessary and the world “refugia” (refugium) is impactful for both practitioners and stakeholders as well as the public which should be increasingly involved in species conservation activities. Refugia are also strictly linked to biodiversity hotspot, conservation biogeography, phylogeography, and ecology of global changes