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School of Environmental Studies

New review examines ecological novelty in a changing climate

August 13, 2026

Image from Power House Cliff showing the aftermath of the 2024 Jasper Wildfire Complex in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. Photo credit: Mountain Legacy Project (https://mountainlegacy.ca) under a Creative Commons License. A new study led by Environmental Studies PhD student Claire Wright, with Dr. Eric Higgs and an international team of co-authors, examines how climate change is creating new ecological conditions across terrestrial and marine environments.

Published in Nature Climate Change, the review draws on more than 200 examples from around the world. It shows how climate change is reshaping species, populations, ecological communities and entire ecosystems, while considering how conservationists and policy-makers might respond to these emerging conditions.

The research was inspired in part by Claire’s work with the Mountain Legacy Project in ES. Historical and repeat images from Jasper National Park included in the article illustrate more than a century of ecological change in the Canadian Rockies.

Read the UVic News story or the study, “Ecological novelty induced by climate change,” in Nature Climate Change for more information.