Climate change drives new species combinations, prompting calls to rethink conservation goals

AI Summary

Climate change is accelerating the formation of new ecological communities as species ranges shift and ecosystems recombine. Researchers say these changes, now unfolding over decades rather than centuries, raise questions about how conservation goals should be defined.

The fact that ecosystems change is nothing new. What is new, however, is the speed and scale at which new species communities are emerging as a result of climate change. Processes that once unfolded over centuries or even millennia are now being observed within just a few decades.