Manage habitats over a range of sites and conditions

Climate change impacts on ecosystems are likely to differ greatly depending on position within the urban-rural gradient, specific land use, and ownership and management type (Iakovoglou et al. 2001, McDonnell et al. 2008). Creating diverse combinations of topographic position, land use, and ownership for each ecosystem type may provide more opportunity for one of those locations to be buffered from change because of the unique site conditions (Colding 2007, Millar et al. 2007). Increasing the number of existing preserved habitats and ecosystems represented in urban landscapes is likely to be difficult (although not necessarily impossible) as most land in urban areas already has a designated land use and most undeveloped ecosystems are already in reserve systems. However, many urban areas have significant levels of land abandonment; restoration and reclamation efforts in these locations could be targeted to produce a diversity of ecosystems and habitats across the landscape (Colding 2007).