The Plants and Natural Communities Working Group assesses potential and observed impacts of climate change on Wisconsin’s plants and natural communities (grasslands, wetlands, savannas, and forests).
The group works with individuals and groups such as natural area managers, ecologists and botanists to identify appropriate responses to these impacts through climate adaptation. It also strives to identify and communicate natural area management approaches that can mitigate climate change as part of a larger strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Learn about assisted migration and download our decision support tool for the assisted migration of rare plants
Summary of Issues and Impacts
Wisconsin’s natural communities, including prairies, forests, savannas, and wetlands, will be affected by a changing climate during this century. Not all natural communities will be affected equally, however. Teams of managers and researchers have assessed the climate vulnerability of Wisconsin’s plants and natural communities to help natural area managers plan and adapt.
Resources
- WICCI’s Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments (CCVAs) for Wisconsin’s natural communities
- Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission “Aanji-bimaadiziimagak o’ow aki” (Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of 66 beings, Version 2).
- Climate Change Response Framework “Forest ecosystem vulnerability assessment and synthesis for northern Wisconsin and western Upper Michigan”
- Climate Change Response Framework “Climate change field guide for northern Wisconsin forests, 2nd Edition”
- Climate Change Response Framework “Climate change field guide for southern Wisconsin forests, 2nd Edition”
The Plants and Natural Communities Working Group identified eight specific climate change issues, along with the impacts that those issues have on plants and natural communities:
1
More Intense and Frequent Heavy Rainfall
Extreme storms erode soils and vegetation and wash out roads, bridges, culverts, and trails. Flooding can cause tree mortality and alter wetland hydrology. Stormwater flowing rapidly across the landscape carries significant amounts of nutrients and sediment to wetlands and waterbodies, sometimes effectively burying desirable native plants and laying down a silty nutrient-rich substrate for invasives like reed canary grass. These changes can also diminish culturally important plants such as wild rice.
Explore
2
Increasing Soil Moisture Stress for Plants
Summer rainfall may decrease while heat and drought may increase, leading to plant stress. These impacts are made worse as growing seasons become longer. This is because plants transpire water to the air while they grow, thus the longer the growing season, the more transpiration and drying of soils. Wetlands with shallow perched water tables may dry more quickly, leading to potential changes in their composition, quality, structure and function. Upland forest tree species composition may also shift in response to warming conditions.
Explore
- Wisconsin’s growing network of real-time weather and soil measurement stations collected by the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet or “Wisconet”
3
Increasing Threat of Non-Native Invasives
Non-native invasive species disproportionately benefit from longer growing seasons. Gushing stormwaters disperse invasives, depositing them with a bed of sediment and nutrients for easy germination. Trees that are stressed by the changing climate are more susceptible to invasive pests. Woody plants such as invasive common buckthorn can better grab moisture from the air with elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide, conferring an advantage.
Explore
- Columbia Climate School blog post on How climate change drives the spread of invasive plants (suitable for lay audience)
- A general overview of invasive species and climate change by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (pdf) (somewhat technical)
- This book chapter can be read online or downloaded for free: Effects of Climate Change on Invasive Species. Chapter in Invasive Species in Forests and Rangelands of the United States (suitable for a technical audience)
4
Warming Temperatures, Including More Extreme Summer Heat
Native plants that are at the southern edge of their range or that have restricted ranges or habitats may disappear from Wisconsin. This is especially true for boreal species and natural communities.
5
Milder Winters with Less Snow
In northern Wisconsin, tree regeneration is increasingly inhibited by deer as higher deer numbers survive milder winters and woody stems are more accessible with shallower snow.
Tree roots are also more vulnerable to frost damage when they lack insulating snow cover. Frozen ground conditions are becoming less reliable, making it more difficult to conduct management on sensitive soils.
6
Winter Precipitation Increasingly Falls as Rain and Freezing Rain
Rain falling on frozen ground can transport manure spread on fields and road salt to waterways and wetlands, causing harm to wetland plants and encouraging growth of invasives. Ice storms can bring down tree limbs, causing tree injury or mortality.
7
Great Lakes Changes, Including Increased Extreme storms, Rapid and Extreme Water Level Changes, and Increased Wave Action
Rain falling on frozen ground can transport manure spread on fields and road salt to waterways and wetlands, causing harm to wetland plants and encouraging growth of invasives.
Explore
- WICCI Great Lakes and Coastal Resilience working groups
8
Multiple Climate Stressors, Often Combined with Other Existing Stressors
Climate change amplifies existing non-climate stressors (e.g., habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, lack of fire, excessive deer browse, and nutrient runoff) to the point where once-diverse habitats are simplified, associated wildlife species diminish or disappear, important ecosystem services are lessened (like water filtration and pollinator sources), and sustainable harvests of desirable species are limited.
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Recommended Solutions/Strategies
Conduct a thorough and transparent analysis before moving seeds and plants in response to a changing climate
Resources:
- WICCI Assisted Migration
- WICCI Assisted Migration Decision Support Tool and associated resources
Protect and restore wetlands throughout the state, particularly headwater and floodplain wetlands along with Great Lakes coastal wetlands
Resources:
- Wisconsin Wetlands Association’s “Fixing the Qater: Community-Led Watershed-Based Hydrologic Restoration in Wisconsin”
- Check out Climate Adaptation Strategies and Approaches for Conservation and Management of Non-Forested Wetlands for specific actions that you can take.
Example:
Work with tribal elders and rice chiefs to monitor wild rice populations and restore historic rice beds that have declined or disappeared
Example:
Restore hydrologic processes and enhance how streams and wetlands store and slowly release water.
Resource:
- Guidance for Stream Restoration. Technical Note TN-102.3 (pdf) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Stream and Aquatic Ecology Center
Monitor for invasive species that are new in the state or a region of the state and initiate rapid control before they become widespread.
Resource:
- Check out this Invasive Species Advisory Committee web publication on how invasive Species Threaten the Success of Climate Change Adaptation Efforts (pdf) and what actions you can take to mitigate these threats. Includes success stories!
Promote research and computer modelling for non-native invasive species that may move into the state along with robust outreach programs.
Develop seed banks for native plants that are vulnerable to climate change.
Example:
- The Sustainable Development Institute of College of Menominee Nation maintains an extensive collection of seeds at their Keshena campus. This includes over 100 varieties of seeds of plants traditionally found in the Menominee forest that have cultural and historical significance for the Menominee people.
Promote use of green infrastructure in developed areas.
Resources:
Favor green infrastructure and living shorelines over armoring and alteration of Great Lakes shorelines.
Promote prescribed fire as a tool to promote ecosystem integrity/resilience and increase numbers and productivity of culturally important species.
Manage forests to maximize carbon sequestration
Example:
- Using extended rotation practices and old-growth management.
Resource:
- Climate Change Response Framework “Forest Carbon Management”
Protect, restore, and maintain native wetlands, grasslands, savannas, and forests as nature-based solutions to climate change.
Resources:
- Learn how habitat restoration can reduce adverse impacts of multiple climate stressors (pdf)
- Climate Change Response Framework Adaptation Workbook
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s Directory of Ecological Restoration Contractors
Examples:
- Read about the climate adaptation demonstration sites across Wisconsin in the “Stories” section below!
- Climate Change Response Framework Climate Adaptation Demonstration Sites (hundreds of projects nationwide including 34 in Wisconsin)
Environmental and Climate Justice Issues
The Plants and Natural Communities Working Group identified multiple areas where their work intersects with environmental and climate justice. Specifically, they call for decision-makers to consider how maintaining diverse, intact, and resilient natural communities like wetlands, grasslands, forests can preserve opportunities for gathering, hunting, and fishing for both cultural traditions and subsistence, ensure sustainable livelihoods for small-scale farmers, and minimize flooding in floodplains and elsewhere.
At the same time, resisting, accommodating, and mitigating negative climate change impacts on plant communities also reduces the adverse human health effects of climate stressors by promoting healthy soils, clean air, and clean water — the building blocks of a healthy environment — to which populations with different spatial and socioeconomic backgrounds have disproportionately limited access.
Decision-makers should ensure that these historically sidelined populations are equitably engaged and actively realizing the full benefits of healthy plant and natural communities.
Stories of Real-World Solutions: Climate Adaptation Demonstration Sites
Climate adaptation demonstration sites are real-world examples of how managers have integrated climate considerations into land management planning and activities. These projects help to test new ideas and actions for responding to changing conditions. They come in all shapes and sizes, showing a variety of adaptation actions that also achieve natural resource management goals.
Other Resources
Resilient Land Mapping Tool (The Nature Conservancy)
Our Team
- Amy Staffen (chair), Ecologist, Natural Heritage Conservation, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, amy.staffen@wisconsin.gov
- Ann Calhoun, Baraboo Hills Project Coordinator, Wisconsin Chapter of The Nature Conservancy
- Kevin Doyle, Botanist, Natural Heritage Conservation, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- Jason Granberg, Invasive Plant Specialist, Natural Heritage Conservation, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- Ryan O’Connor, Ecologist/Inventory Coordinator, Natural Heritage Conservation, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- Hannah Panci, Climate Change Scientist, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission
- Danielle Shannon, USDA Northern Forests Climate Hub Coordinator, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science
- Quita Sheehan, Conservation Specialist, Vilas County Land and Water Conservation Department
- Sara Smith, Midwest Tribal Resilience Liaison, College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute
- Josh Sulman, Environmental Scientist, Stantec
- Keir Wefferling, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay
- Matt Zine, Conservation Biologist, Natural Heritage Conservation, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources