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  • Connor Reeve
    Carleton University
  • Jessica A Robichaud
    Carleton University
  • Timothy Fernandes
    University of Toronto, Canada
  • Amanda E Bates
    University of Victoria
  • Andrew J Bramburger
    Environment and Climate Change Canada
  • Jacob W Brownscombe
    Fisheries and Oceans CanadaCarleton University
  • Christina M Davy
    Carleton University
  • Hugh A.L. Henry
    University of Western Ontario
  • Bailey McMeans
    University of Toronto, Canada
  • Eric Moise
    Natural Resources Canada
  • Sapna Sharma
    York University, Toronto
  • Paul A Smith
    Carleton UniversityEnvironment and Climate Change Canada
  • Emily K Studd
    University of Toronto Mississauga
  • Antoin M. O'Sullivan
    University of New Brunswick
  • Alex Sutton
  • Pamela H Templer
    Boston University
  • Steven J. Cooke
    Carleton University
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.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbercoad027
Pages (from-to)coad027
JournalConservation physiology
Volume11
Issue number1
Early online date9 May 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

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