LAUSR

Climate change has become increasingly evident globally, especially in more northerly regions, with warming trends virtually certain to continue over the coming decades (IPCC, 2021). Meierhofer et al. (2022) note that current and predicted future climate trends are likely to cause particular harm to specialized species in subterranean environments because such species often have narrow physiological tolerances and limited ability to disperse (Mammola et al., 2019). To date, conservation efforts designed to maintain biodiversity or promote ecological resilience in the face of climate change have focused primarily on identifying, protecting, and restoring climate refugia (e.g., Maxwell et al., 2019) or facilitating community shifts to favor species well adapted to current or expected environmental conditions (e.g., Hylander et al., 2021). In contrast, the application of climate adaptation— anthropogenic modification designed to cope with current and future climate changes (IPCC, 2018)—to natural systems has rarely been undertaken and systematically evaluated, apart from in a few iconic animal species (Mason et al., 2021). Current efforts and tools for climate adaptation therefore remain far too limited to conserve the diversity of species and communities that will be harmed by climate change. In this context, we greatly appreciate Meierhofer et al.’s essay noting that the techniques we recently described for manipulating underground environments to conserve bats threatened by an invasive pathogen (Turner