Data from: Planning for climate change through additions to a national protected area network: implications for cost and configuration

Expanding the network of protected areas is a core strategy for conserving
biodiversity in the face of climate change. Here we explore the impacts on
reserve network cost and configuration associated with planning for
climate change in the United States using networks that prioritize areas
projected to be climatically suitable for 1,460 species both today and
into the future, climatic refugia, and areas likely to facilitate
climate-driven species movements. For 14% of the species, networks of
sites selected solely to protect areas currently climatically suitable
failed to provide climatically suitable habitat in the future. Protecting
sites climatically suitable for species today and in the future
significantly changed the distribution of priority sites across the
U.S.—increasing relative protection in the northeast, northwest, and
central U.S. Protecting areas projected to retain their climatic
suitability for species cost 59% more than solely protecting currently
suitable areas. Including all climatic refugia and 20% of areas that
facilitate climate-driven movements increased the cost by another 18%. Our
results indicate that protecting some types of climatic refugia may be a
relatively inexpensive adaptation strategy. Moreover, although addressing
climate change in conservation plans will have significant implications
for the configuration of networks, the increased cost of doing so may be
relatively modest.