Climate warming

Names and classification

Record type

threat

Kauaʻi occurrence and status

Recorded state

Ongoing

Threats and conservation

Pressure source

Anthropogenic climate forcing

Exposure pathway

Higher air/sea temperatures alter physiological limits, disease/vector distributions, hydrology and disturbance regimes

Consequences

Range contraction, altered disease exposure, heat stress, coral bleaching and ecological reorganization

Affected requirements

Thermal refugia, disease-free forest habitat, coral thermal tolerance and ecosystem state

Susceptibility

Montane forest birds, wet forests/bogs, reefs and temperature-sensitive biota

Reversibility

Not locally reversible; local adaptation and resilience actions can reduce consequences

Early warning indicators

Air/sea temperature; elevational vector detections; thermal stress; species range shifts

Conservation interventions

Implementation limits

Magnitude, exposure and trend are not assumed uniform across Kauaʻi; local evidence governs.

Sources and further reading

• https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/wildlife/files/2026/03/FINAL-2025-SWAP.pdf
• https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dofaw/fw-announcements/kauai/mosquito-updates/
• https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation/shallow-coral-reef-habitat

Connected Atlas records

• Lowland wet forest & shrubland · Ecosystems
• Montane mesic forest & shrubland · Ecosystems
• Montane wet forest & shrubland · Ecosystems
• Montane bog & dwarf wet shrubland · Ecosystems
• Coral reef & colonized hardbottom ecosystem · Ecosystems
• Nearshore pelagic coastal-water ecosystem · Ecosystems