Journal for Nature Conservation ] (]]]]) ]]]—]]] Non-analogous community formation in response to climate change Sally A. Keith a,Ã , Adrian C. Newton a , Roger J.H. Herbert a , Michael D. Morecroft b , Clive E. Bealey c a Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Change, C232, School of Conservation Sciences, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole BH12 5BB, UK b Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK c Natural England, Lyndhurst, UK Received 22 July 2008; accepted 9 April 2009 KEYWORDS Climate change; Community; Composition; Conservation; Immigration; Extinction; Metacommunity; Non-analogous community; Vulnerability Summary Palaeoecological and current ecological evidence suggests that species will respond individualistically to future climate change. This is likely to lead to the formation of Non-Analogous Communities (NACs), which may be defined as communities that are different in species composition from any communities that can be recognised at a selected reference point in time. We explore the process of NAC formation, with reference to the key processes of immigration and extinction and the potential influence of landscape pattern, in the context of a metacommunity framework. NAC formation has considerable implications for the development and implementation of conservation policies, which frequently refer to the maintenance of current communities. The achievement of such an objective represents a substantial challenge in an era of rapid environmental change, and fails to accept the dynamic nature of communities. We suggest that conservation policies should identify potential responses to community change based on an understanding of the processes of NAC formation. & 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Introduction The complex and rapid environmental changes that characterise the modern era represent a major challenge to conservation management. Research evidence indicates that climate change is already having a major impact on global biodiversity (McCarty 2001; Parmesan & Yohe 2003; Root et al. ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.de/jnc 1617-1381/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2009.04.003 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +441202 966771; fax: +441202 965478. E-mail address: skeith@bournemouth.ac.uk (S.A. Keith). Please cite this article as: Keith, S. A., et al. Non-analogous community formation in response to climate change. Journal for Nature Conservation, (2009), doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2009.04.003