4.25 - Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies to Reduce Climate Vulnerabilities and Maintain Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Increasing temperatures and altered precipitation regimes associated with human-caused changes in the earth s climate are having substantial impacts on ecological systems and human well-being. Maintaining functioning ecosystems, the provision of ecosystem services, and healthy human populations into the future will require integrating adaptation and mitigation strategies. Adaptation strategies are actions that help human and natural systems accommodate changes. Mitigation strategies are actions that reduce anthropogenic influences on climate. Here, we provide an overview of what will likely be some of the most effective and most important mitigation and adaptation strategies for addressing climate change. In addition to describing the ways in which these strategies can address impacts to natural and human systems, we discuss the social considerations that we believe must be incorporated into the development and application of mitigation or adaptation strategies to address political situations, cultural differences, and economic limitations.