DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jm63xsj6d
title: Data from: Planning for climate change through additions to a national protected area network: implications for cost and configuration

description: Expanding the network of protected areas is a core strategy for conserving
 biodiversity in the face of climate change. Here we explore the impacts on
 reserve network cost and configuration associated with planning for
 climate change in the United States using networks that prioritize areas
 projected to be climatically suitable for 1,460 species both today and
 into the future, climatic refugia, and areas likely to facilitate
 climate-driven species movements. For 14% of the species, networks of
 sites selected solely to protect areas currently climatically suitable
 failed to provide climatically suitable habitat in the future. Protecting
 sites climatically suitable for species today and in the future
 significantly changed the distribution of priority sites across the
 U.S.—increasing relative protection in the northeast, northwest, and
 central U.S. Protecting areas projected to retain their climatic
 suitability for species cost 59% more than solely protecting currently
 suitable areas. Including all climatic refugia and 20% of areas that
 facilitate climate-driven movements increased the cost by another 18%. Our
 results indicate that protecting some types of climatic refugia may be a
 relatively inexpensive adaptation strategy. Moreover, although addressing
 climate change in conservation plans will have significant implications
 for the configuration of networks, the increased cost of doing so may be
 relatively modest.  
description: To explore the effect of applying each of three approaches to
 addressing climate change on network cost and configuration, we selected
 five sets of networks to augment the current protected areas in the U.S.
 to meet five different goals. First, we selected sites to protect
 currently climatically suitable areas for plants and vertebrates. Second,
 we selected sets of sites that protected species-specific refugia. These
 networks protected sites that were projected to be climatically suitable
 for species both today and into the future. Third, we selected networks
 that protected currently climatically suitable areas for species and areas
 of potential climatic macrorefugia—locations that retain increasingly rare
 climatic conditions. Fourth, we selected networks that protected currently
 climatically suitable areas for species and areas identified as providing
 connectivity to facilitate climate-driven species movements (hereafter
 climate corridors). Finally, we selected networks that protected
 species-specific refugia, climatic refugia, and climate corridors (i.e.,
 combining the second, third, and fourth goals).
description: Data include MARXAN files as well as original data files
 depicting 1) projected species current and future distributions for 1460
 species, projected climatic refugia, potential climatic corridors, and
 estimated land cost data. Contents:<br>
 MarxanFiles.zip - contains all MARXAN input files<br>
 SpeciesProjections.zip - contains the projected current and future
 distributions of all species used in the study<br> Refugia.zip -
 contains raster files of projected potential climatic refugia<br>
 CostData.zip - contains raster of  estimated site costs<br>
 Corridors.zip - contains raster of corridor lengths All
 compressed folders contain metadata for the files contained
 therein.