For decades, botanists have recognized that rare plants are clustered into ecological “islands”: small and isolated habitat patches produced by landscape features such as sinkholes and bedrock outcrops. Insular ecosystems often provide unusually stressful microhabitats for plant growth (due, for example, to their characteristically thin soils, high temperatures, extreme pH, or limited nutrients) to which rare species are specially adapted. Climate‐driven changes to these stressors may undermine the competitive advantage of stress‐adapted species, allowing them to be displaced by competitors, or may overwhelm their coping strategies altogether. Special features of insular ecosystems – such as extreme habitat fragmentation and association with unusual landscape features – could also affect their climate sensitivity and adaptive capacity. To help predict and manage climate‐change impacts, I present a simple conceptual framework based on a synthesis of over 300 site‐level studies. Using this framework, conservation efforts can leverage existing ecological knowledge to anticipate habitat changes and design targeted strategies for conserving rare species.

中文翻译：

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生态岛：在气候变化中保护生物多样性热点

几十年来，植物学家已经认识到稀有植物聚集在生态“岛”中：由沙坑和基岩露头等景观特征产生的小而孤立的栖息地。岛屿生态系统通常会为植物生长提供异常压力的微生境（例如，由于其典型的稀薄土壤，高温，极端pH值或有限的养分），因此稀有物种特别适应了这些栖息地。这些压力源的气候驱动变化可能会破坏适应压力的物种的竞争优势，使它们被竞争者所取代，或者可能完全压倒其应对策略。岛屿生态系统的特殊特征（例如极端的栖息地破碎化以及与不寻常的景观特征的关联）也可能影响其气候敏感性和适应能力。为了帮助预测和管理气候变化影响，我提出了一个简单的概念框架，该框架基于对300多个站点级研究的综合。使用此框架，保护工作可以利用现有的生态知识来预测栖息地的变化，并设计针对性的保护稀有物种的策略。