00;00;03;24 - 00;00;05;05
almost 40%

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of the vertebrates that live on land
in the contiguous United States

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that we consider to be threatened
with extinction, have been found

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to be sensitive to drought.

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So it's very important in the sense

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that now we have a good idea
of which of these species might,

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be exposed to the largest increases
in drought in the future.

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the genesis of this was probably a big,

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historic drought in California
in 2012 or 2016.

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And that's really where I started,

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you know, getting involved in
drought research with respect to wildlife.

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And, the state of California also was
it was kind of a wake up call for them.

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for many species,

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we don't really know whether
they are sensitive to drought or not.

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And so we mapped
where, areas of high biodiversity overlap

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with, large
predicted increases in drought.

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So we may consider these regions
to be priorities if we're going to try to,

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figure out what species may be vulnerable,
to drought and to what extent.

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one thing that's

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important to know in this
we look at the average per ecoregion.

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there's almost 90 of them
across the contiguous USA.

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There might be quite a bit of variability
within these ecoregions.

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there's also the
the variability across potential futures.

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So we don't know exactly what's going
to happen by the end of next century.

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this was a really high level analysis.

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So it's looking at pretty much
all resident

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vertebrates across the United States
how this can really benefit conservation

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planning is to highlight
where we think drought is,

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is increasing the most,
where we need to focus our,

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planning efforts and conservation
efforts on this specific threat.

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it's important for this type of work to,
inform managers and planners

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so they can focus on, okay,
this part of the country or

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these group of species are likely
to be most exposed to increased drought.

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So we can start thinking forward
about what

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sort of mitigation actions,
we should be taking or planning for.

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we saw

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that the
southwest, which in general is already

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a pretty dry region,
will see the largest increases in drought.

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While it also has the highest diversity
in vertebrates.

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this points towards something interesting,
which is that

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the place with most diversity
will also be hit the hardest.

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also, when we looked at, the relatively
few species for which we currently know

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whether they're drought sensitive or not,
many of those occur in the southwest.

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So it does point towards there also being

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sensitivity of local wildlife to drought,

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because drought is relatively common
in these regions,

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it may also be that
we have just more knowledge on

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how the species respond
to drought compared to, say, an area

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in the northeastern USA where drought
has been relatively uncommon.

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There may also be species

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sensitive to drought,
but we just don't know at this point,

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because droughts may not have occurred
within that species range very often. Yet.

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the different management strategies,

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I think, again,
are going to have to come back to the

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the life histories of the species
that we're particularly concerned about.

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So if it's those species
that are directly impacted

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by the availability of water
in streams and rivers that takes certain

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types of responses that managers can do.

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some of the work that we've done in
the past has looked at the response

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of some mature associated species
like the spotted owl, Pacific

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fisher, to loss in, forest.

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during that period, also associated
with some pretty large wildfires,

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we saw a loss of mature forest habitat
in those areas,

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which can really affect some of these
species dependent on those habitats.

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Those two species are not necessarily
considered drought sensitive,

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but if their habitats
are going to go through large changes,

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then that, indicates
a different type of habitat management,

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different actions that we need to take to mitigate drought effects.