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Threats to biodiversity from global warming
In news today, an amphibian-killing disease evidently thrives with higher temperatures.
A fungal disease that threatens to wipe out many amphibians is thriving because of climate change, a study suggests. Researchers studying amphibians at a national park in Spain show that rising temperatures are closely linked to outbreaks of the chytrid fungus. Chytrid fungus is a major contributor to the decline of amphibian populations around the world, threatening many species with extinction. ...
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Bird populations devastated by global warming
Grim report just out from WWF; info on wwf site begins:
Climate">http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=86460]Climate change has birds out on a limb (includes links to report and report summary)
I learned of it thro Reuters report, headed "" Global">http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13486051.htm]Global warming could wipe out most birds: WWF
Even back in the late 1980s, I thought there were signs that global warming was impacting bird migration on east coast of China (at and near Beidaihe); notably, some late autumn birds such as cranes were appearing later than had been noted in 1940s and earlier. Learned from Jesper Hornskov that changes there have continued; for instance, ice forming later as winter arrives, birds such as little egrets lingering. Chinese Bulbul - formerly unknown in that area - has spread there, and become a common breeding bird. Some residents apparently commoner, perhaps as result of milder winters. I figured that ne China maybe more prone to warming as it has rather little influence from ocean temperatures. Indeed, seems to be warming relatively fast; just found a report saying:
China">http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-11/14/content_732513.htm]China's temperature to raise 1.7 degrees Celsius by 2030
Here in Hong Kong, a remarkably warm late autumn this year - I'm considering turning on air con just now. Surges of northerly airstreams, which help drive autumn migration, have been only feeble so far. (Perhaps not so surprising after we read of much Arctic ice melting. The masses of cold air that drive the airstreams not being chilled so much.)
In Borneo in August, I was told of rainy season being late, but imminent; yet reports of ongoing fires show it has remained relatively dry. Yes, not unprecedented, but perhaps another worrisome sign of change. More fires, more habitats for resident birds and migrants from the north going up in smoke. (And the dry weather must make it tough for birds in the remaining forests; esp if normal behaviour might be to move, find places that may be better.)
By contrast, another report just out telling of forest cover increasing in various places, inc China. But, this surely means plantations and secondary growth; and China reportedly sparing its own forests while involved in heavily logging others, from Siberia to PNG.
Post edited by: Martin, at: 2006/11/14 06:02
Post edited by: Martin, at: 2006/11/14 06:23
Extinction threats rising with global warming
Study: Warming speeds species die off There's a page of info on the Univ of Texas website, and link to pdf file of the report: Global">http://cns.utexas.edu/communications/2006/11/global_species.asp]Global Warming Increases Species Extinctions Worldwide, University of Texas at Austin Researcher Finds
Polar bear may be listed as threatened species
Polar">http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.nOkuHk6jds&refer=u... Bears May Be Listed as Threatened by U.S. (Update1)
Amazon could become savannah in 100 years
Global">http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/29/america/LA_GEN_Brazil_Amazon_W... warming could transform Amazon into savanna in 100 years, Brazil researchers say
British winter birds, Baltic fish, hedgehogs affected
Article in Independent newspaper cites some of odd changes in wildlife as temperatures rise. This a day after I saw a near full-summer plumage Great Crested Grebe at Scarborough, North Yorkshire - till now, had seen some hundreds or thousands of these, and all those from autumn to early spring in the very different winter plumage. Also at Scarborough, a dearth of wintering sea ducks when I walked stretch of coast where I'd formerly see tens or even hundreds of them. Been here - holiday at home town - over a week now, and not even seen frost yet. Follows warmest year on record for the UK. so, from Independent:
">http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2129963.ece] 'Irreversible' global warming claims its first victims of the New Year - last point interesting to me, as I was recently at global warming workshop at HK Univ; aquatic life expert Prof David Dudgeon gave talk, suggesting fish [at higher altitudes, cooler places] could have problems breathing as warmer water contains less oxygen. An article on Scientific American site has more info on the fish: ">http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=EF298568-E7F2-99DF-3AF9CDD826... Fish Fin?: How Climate Change Is Hurting Cold Water Fish A bottom-loving fish in the North Sea shows how climate change can directly impact aquatic species--and presage their local doom
Post edited by: Martin, at: 2007/01/07 18:48
Barrier reef may soon be functionally extinct
[quote]The Great Barrier Reef will become "functionally extinct" within decades at the current rate of global warming, while wilder weather is set to affect property values and drive up insurance bills in many Australian coastal communities.
...
The Age has obtained a draft of the climate impacts report ahead of its release later this year. It includes a chapter on Australia, which warns that coral bleaching in the Barrier Reef is likely to become an annual occurrence by as early as 2030 due to warmer, more acidic seas.
It takes at least a decade for coral to start recovering from severe bleaching. But that may not happen, with average temperatures now expected to increase by about 3 degrees this century, raising the risk that areas of coral will die outright.[/quote]
[url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/reef-facing-extinction/2007/01/29... 'facing extinction'[/url]
Global warming a major problem
from the Independent:
[quote] Global warming is a "weapon of mass destruction", one of Britain and the world's top climatologists said yesterday.
Sir John Houghton, former director-general of the Meteorological Office and chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, entered the debate over the seriousness of climate change after two meteorologists were reported as saying that "some scientists have been guilty of overplaying the available evidence". He said he agreed with the Government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, that it posed a greater threat than terrorism.
...
Sir John says he agrees "we must not exaggerate the evidence, and if anything must underplay it". But he adds the evidence of serious climate change is now "very substantial".
Sceptics charge that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change exaggerates the dangers. But Sir John, as one of the founders of the panel, says that it had "deliberately underestimated the problem".[/quote]
[url=http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2368999.... Global warming is a 'weapon of mass destruction'
Climate experts hit back after being accused of overstating the problem[/url]
- "weapon of mass destruction" analogy maybe a bit unfortunate after Iraq and the missing WMDs. But, warming a real problem.
Global warming confuses migratory birds, whales
[quote] A warmer climate disrupts the biological clocks of migratory species including bats, dolphins, antelopes or turtles, said Lahcen el Kabiri, deputy head of the UN's Bonn-based Convention on Migratory Species. "They are the most visible warning signs -- indicators signalling the dramatic changes to our ecosystems caused in part by climate change," he told delegates on the opening day of a May 7-18 UN meeting searching for new ways to offset warming. Many creatures are mistiming their migrations, or failing to bother as changes between seasons become less clear. The shifts make them vulnerable to heatwaves, droughts or cold snaps. Among birds, for instance, cranes are starting to spend the winter in Germany rather than fly south to Spain or Portugal. "A harsh winter could decimate the population," he said. ... "Climate change affects all migratory species," El Kabiri, a Moroccan, told Reuters. He said that whales were sometimes in the wrong place to feed on fish and plankton which were thriving closer to the poles because of warmer oceans.[/quote] Migratory Birds, Whales Confused by Warming - UN
Coral disease linked to higher sea temperatures
Putting">http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/508/2]Putting the Heat on Coral
Post edited by: Martin, at: 2007/05/23 09:34
Whales and dolphins threatened by warming
Disturbed">http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=102980]Disturbed, hungry and lost – climate change impacts on whales - you can download pdf file with the report here.
Greenland plants and animals changing lifecycles
Global">http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=167557]... warming brings early spring to Arctic
- adaptations clearly proving possible, but will also be losers here, with some species finding conditions no longer really suit them, inc as more southerly species spread north.
UK winter bird populations changing
">http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-167673][/url]
Similar changes perhaps underway here in east Asia, too: indeed, apparent climate change effects evident at Beidaihe, east China, even by late 1980s. Last winter, Dalmatian Pelicans didn't make it south as far as Hong Kong, maybe as relatively warm.
Alaska losing polar bears as Arctic ice melts apace
From long article in the Independent, showing grim things are happening up north:
">http://environment.independent.co.uk/wildlife/article2944401.ece] The appalling fate of the polar bear, symbol of the Arctic
Walruses shift to land as Arctic ice recedes
[quote]Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice. Alaska's walrus, especially breeding females, in summer and fall are usually found on the Arctic ice pack. But the lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas. Walrus feed on clams, snails and other bottom dwellers. Given the choice between an ice platform over water beyond their 630-foot diving range or gathering spots on shore, thousands of walrus picked Alaska's rocky beaches. "It looks to me like animals are shifting their distribution to find prey," said Tim Ragen, executive director of the federal Marine Mammal Commission. "The big question is whether they will be able to find sufficient prey in areas where they are looking." According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, September sea ice was 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. Sea ice cover is in a downward spiral and may have passed the point of no return, with a possible ice-free Arctic Ocean by summer 2030, senior scientist Mark Serreze said. Starting in July, several thousand walrus abandoned the ice pack for gathering spots known as haulouts between Barrow and Cape Lisburne, a remote, 300-mile stretch of Alaska coastline.[/quote] Receding Ice Displaces Alaska Walrus
Endangered shearwater driven into UK waters
[quote]Around 10 per cent of the world population of Balearic shearwaters has visited UK inshore waters this summer and autumn, with more than 1,200 birds being recorded from just one watchpoint near Land's End in Cornwall.
...
The survey builds upon new research recently published in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, which highlights global warming as a key driver behind the upsurge in UK Balearic shearwater sightings.
Dr Wynn and colleagues showed how northeast Atlantic sea surface temperatures rose by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the mid-1990s, triggering a northwards shift in the Balearic shearwater's prey fish species and with it the birds that feed on them.
'Just 20 years ago Balearic shearwaters were scarce visitors to South West waters, but they are now regularly recorded from headlands throughout the UK. Since 2003 we have even started seeing birds staying throughout the winter off Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, which is a completely new phenomenon linked to elevated winter sea temperatures,' said Dr Wynn.
...
Dr Wynn added: 'Climate change is often perceived to be a future threat, but the reality for our marine fauna is that it is happening now. Species towards the top of the food chain are having to respond very rapidly in order to survive, and some are going to be pushed to extinction if they fail'.[/quote]
[url=http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-172709]Climate Change Drives Endangered Seabird Into UK Waters[/url]
New England fall colors duller and later
Not so obviously a species in peril, but further signs of change seen in New England, US, now witnessing later, duller autumn tree colours. Tourism to perhaps suffer; but also mention re fungus able to attack more.
Climate Change Blamed for Fading Foliage
Huge extinction could eliminate half of species globally
From the Guardian:
[quote]Rising global temperatures caused by climate change could trigger a huge extinction of plants and animals, according to a study. Though humans would probably survive such an event, half of the world's species could be wiped out.
Scientists at the University of York and the University of Leeds examined the relationship between climate and biodiversity over the past 520m years - almost the entire fossil record - and uncovered an association between the two for the first time. When the Earth's temperatures are in a "greenhouse" climate phase, they found that extinctions rates were relatively high. Conversely, during cooler "icehouse" conditions, biodiversity increased.
The results, published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that the predictions of a rapid rise in the Earth's temperature due to man-made climate change could have a similar effect on biodiversity.
Peter Mayhew, a population ecologist at the University of York and one of the authors of the research paper, said: "Our results provide the first clear evidence that global climate may explain substantial variation in the fossil record in a simple and consistent manner. If our results hold for current warming - the magnitude of which is comparable with the long-term fluctuations in Earth climate - they suggest that extinctions will increase."[/quote]
[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/24/climatechange.scienceo... could wipe out half of all species[/url]
A hell of a lot of species are in big trouble
From Associated Press:
Global Warming Wreaks Havoc With Nature
Climate change killing penguins
From The Times:
[quote]The Emperor penguins which won the hearts of millions of children in the film Happy Feet have suffered a devastating population slump in the last 50 years, according to a report.
Many colonies have fallen in size by 50 per cent as the penguins have been squeezed by the effects of climate change and overfishing, the WWF said in its report, Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change.
...
Sea ice on the western peninsula of Antarctic has retreated 40 per cent in the last three decades and is thought to be partly to blame for huge falls in the stocks of krill, a shrimp-like creature eaten by the penguins. Another factor is overfishing by humans.
The quantities of krill, which live under the ice where they feed on microscopic plant life, are estimated to have fallen 80 per cent in the last decade alone in part of the conbtinent’s western peninsula.
Warming in the Antarctic western peninsula is taking place about five times faster than other parts of the planet.
Nesting sites are destroyed by the the melting ice and the emperor penguins have suffered more thyan any other species in Antarctica.
Gentoos and chinstraps are being forced further south by the warming temperatures and this is putting extra pressure on the emperors and Adelie species. [/quote]
[url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article3033833.ece]Penguins in decline due to global warming[/url]
Ignorant people write ignorant things re polar bears
Polar Bears International website has good info countering claims that polar bear populations are increasing so no worries for them with global warming.
Ask">http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/ask-the-experts/population/]Ask the Experts: Are Polar Bear Populations Increasing?
Global warming threatens King Penguin
Following on from above post, comes this news on National Geographic website:
[quote]King penguins near the Antarctic may be on a perilous path to extinction as a result of global warming, new research suggests.
Populations of the large birds on Possession Island in the Indian Ocean's Crozet Archipelago are declining as sea temperatures warm and the birds are forced to travel longer distances to find food.
...
In recent years, many of the prey species have died or migrated as the ocean warms and the algae that those animals eat are impacted.
Warming temperatures also force fish to swim into cool waters farther away from the island, causing penguins to travel greater distances to hunt. The longer time away from home reduces chick feedings, the researchers found.
So during years when seas become warmer, penguins do not breed as successfully, Le Maho and colleagues found.
At the edge of the sea ice, where penguin adults forage during winter, just a 0.47 degree Fahrenheit (0.26 degree Celsius) increase resulted in a 9 percent decrease in the population two years later.[/quote]
[url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080211-penguins-warming.... Penguins Declining Due to Global Warming[/url]
Crabs n sharks could muscle in to Antarctic waters
further threats to Antarctic biodiversity:
[quote]Unique marine life in Antarctica will be at risk from an invasion of sharks, crabs and other predators if global warming continues, scientists warn.
Crabs are poised to return to the Antarctic shallows, threatening creatures such as giant sea spiders and floppy ribbon worms, says a UK-US team.
Some have evolved without predators for tens of millions of years.
Bony fish and sharks would move in if waters warm further, threatening species with extinction, they say.
In the last 50 years, sea surface temperatures around Antarctica have risen by 1 to 2C, which is more than twice the global average. [/quote]
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7248025.stm]Warming risks Antarctic sea life[/url]
Caribou spring food too early for calves
Global">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501180253.htm]Global Warming Linked To Caribou-calf Mortality
Warming freezing penguins?
from National Geographic:
Penguin">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080702-endangered-pengui... Chicks Frozen by Global Warming?
Birds in France can't move at speed of climate change
AFP item includes:[quote]The habitats of wild bird species are shifting in response to global warming, but not fast enough to keep pace with rising temperatures, according to a study released Wednesday.Researchers in France also found that the delicate balance of wildlife in different ecosystems is changing up to eight times more quickly than previously suspected, with potentially severe consequences for some species."The flora and fauna around us are shifting over time due to climate change," said lead author Victor Devictor, a researcher at the French National Museum of Natural History."The result is desynchronisation. If birds and the insects upon which they depend do not react in the same way, we are headed for an upheaval in the interaction between species," he explained in a telephone interview.These "mismatches" are likely to become greater over time, and could eventually threaten some birds with extinction, he added.The study showed that the geographic range of 105 birds species in France -- accounting for 99.5 percent of the country's wild avian population -- moved north, on average, 91 kilometres (56.5 miles) from 1989 through 2006.Average temperatures, however, shifted northward 273 kilometres (170 miles) over the same period, nearly three times farther.[/quote]Birds can't keep up with climate change: study
Warmer winters reducing lemming populations
From National Geographic:
[quote]Climate change may be responsible for shrinking lemming populations in Norway, a new study shows. As a result, the lack of the small mammals is cascading through the ecosystem, forcing predators to find different food sources.
In recent years, warmer temperatures have been changing the structure of the snow—with devastating effects for the lemmings.
Rather than remaining below freezing for most of the winter, temperatures have bounced above freezing a number of times, melting and then refreezing the snowpack.
"This enables water to enter the system, flooding the snow tunnels and then forming ice layers on the ground," Kausrud said.
Many lemmings drown when their burrows are flooded, and those that survive often starve when their food is trapped under an icy layer.
...
Unable to gorge themselves on lemmings every few years, predators like the Arctic fox and snowy owl have had to rely on other food sources, such as ptarmigan (a kind of grouse) and willow grouse.
As a result, the numbers of these ground-nesting birds have been diminishing. "Lemming population explosions help to take the pressure off ptarmigan and willow grouse," Coulson explained.
Although the study looks only at one region in Norway, Kausrud and his colleagues believe the effect could be widespread.[/quote]
Global Warming Threatens Lemmings in Norway
Beware of the blobs as jelly balls increase
From Sydney Morning Herald:
[quote]
VAST numbers of marine "jelly balls" now appearing off the Australian east coast could be part of the planet's mechanism for combating global warming.
The jellyfish-like animals are known as salps and their main food is phytoplankton (marine algae) which absorbs the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the top level of the ocean. This in turn comes from the atmosphere.
...
Dr Baird was part of a CSIRO and University of NSW marine survey last month that found a massive abundance of salps in the waters around Sydney. They were up to 10 times what they were when first surveyed 70 years ago.
Different salp species are found around the world and attention is now being paid to what effect they might have on global warming.[/quote]
'Jelly balls' may slow global warming
Grumpy moose hate warm weather
Evidence that moose numbers falling on southern edge of their range:
[quote]It wasn't long ago that thousands of moose roamed the gentle terrain of northwestern Minnesota, affirming the iconic status of the antlered, bony-kneed beast from the North Woods. In just two decades, though, their numbers have plummeted, from 4,000 to fewer than a hundred.
They didn't move away. They just died.
The primary culprit in what is known as the moose mystery, scientists say, is climate change, which has systematically reduced the Midwest's already dwindling moose population and provoked alarm in Minnesota, where wildlife specialists gathered for a "moose summit" last month in Duluth.
"There's not a lot of opportunity to turn this around," said Mark Lenarz, a wildlife research specialist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. "Here in Minnesota, they (moose) have been weakened by climate change."
Temperatures tell much of the story. Over the past 40 years in northwest Minnesota, the average winter temperature has risen significantly — 12 degrees — while summers are 4 degrees warmer. Solitary and temperamentally grumpy, moose have made it clear in their estimated 13,000 years in North America that they hate warm weather.[/quote]
Iconic moose may lose battle with climate change
The beasts are dying off in the Midwest, failing to adapt to warmer temperatures
Trees dying faster in US old-growth forests
From Christian Science Monitor:
[quote]Old-growth forests in the Western United States appear to be losing ground to the regional effects of global warming.
That’s the conclusion a team of federal and university-based forest ecologists have reached after looking at long-term trends in patches of relatively pristine old-growth forests.
...
After examining a range of possible causes for the region-wide pattern, the last ones standing are the West’s warming trend and warming’s effect on the amount of water these areas receive. Summer dry spells are longer. Snows melt earlier. More winter precipitation falls as rain, rather than snow, and the snow that falls has a lower water content than it once did.
...
The study adds to a growing body of research that suggests any country with extensive forests – whether tropical, temperate, or boreal – may deserve a place at the table when global climate talks discuss “avoided deforestation” as a tool for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.[/quote]
US forests hold new evidence of global warming
Signs shells harder to form in more acidic oceans
From Sci American:
Proof on the Half Shell: A More Acid Ocean Corrodes Sea Life
Ocean acidification is taking a toll on tiny shell-building animals
Rising CO2 levels may doom coral reefs
Grim report in the Guardian includes:
[quote]Coral reefs are doomed. The situation is virtually hopeless. Forget ice caps and rising sea levels: the tropical coral reef looks like it will enter the history books as the first major ecosystem wiped out by our love of cheap energy.
Today, a report from the Australian government agency that looks after the nation's emblematic Great Barrier Reef reported that "the overall outlook for the reef is poor and catastrophic damage to the ecosystem may not be averted". The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble, and it is not the only one.
Within just a few decades, experts are warning, the tropical reefs strung around the middle of our planet like a jewelled corset will reduce to rubble. Giant piles of slime-covered rubbish will litter the sea bed and spell in large distressing letters for the rest of foreseeable time: Humans Were Here.
"The future is horrific," says Charlie Veron, an Australian marine biologist who is widely regarded as the world's foremost expert on coral reefs. "There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognise. If, and when, they go, they will take with them about one-third of the world's marine biodiversity. Then there is a domino effect, as reefs fail so will other ecosystems. This is the path of a mass extinction event, when most life, especially tropical marine life, goes extinct."
Alex Rogers, a coral expert with the Zoological Society of London, talks of an "absolute guarantee of their annihilation". And David Obura, another coral heavyweight and head of CORDIO East Africa, a research group in Kenya, is equally pessimistic: "I don't think reefs have much of a chance. And what's happening to reefs is a parable of what is going to happen to everything else."[/quote]
How global warming sealed the fate of the world's coral reefs
Destroyed by rising carbon levels, acidity, pollution, algae, bleaching and El Niño, coral reefs require a dramatic change in our carbon policy to have any chance of survival, report warns
Many iconic Arctic species are faring badly w warming
Dramatic Biological Responses To Global Warming In The Arctic
Trend towards earlier UK springs and summers accelerating
From press release for Centre for Ecology and Hydrology:
[quote]The recent trend towards earlier UK springs and summers has been accelerating, according to a study published today (9 February 2010) in the scientific journal Global Change Biology.
The collaborative study, involving scientists from 12 UK research institutions, universities and conservation organisations, is the most comprehensive and rigorous assessment so far of long-term changes in the seasonal timing (phenology) of biological events across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments in the UK.
Led by Dr Stephen Thackeray and Professor Sarah Wanless of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the research gathers together more than 25,000 long-term phenology trends for 726 species of plants and animals. More than 80% of trends between 1976 and 2005 indicate earlier seasonal events. The study considers a diverse array of organisms including plankton, plants, insects, amphibians, fish, birds and mammals. On average, the seasonal timing of reproduction and population growth has become earlier by more than 11 days over the whole period, but change has accelerated in recent decades.
The research shows that there are large differences between species in the rate at which seasonal events have shifted. Changes have been most rapid for many organisms at the bottom of food chains, such as plants and the animals that feed upon them. Predators have shown slower overall changes in the seasonal timing of their life cycle events. However, the seasonal timing of reproduction is often matched to the time of year when food supply increases, so that offspring receive enough food to survive.
A key question is whether animals higher up the food chain will react to the faster rates of change in the plants and animals they feed upon, or whether they will fail to do so and become less successful at rearing their offspring.[/quote]
Will earlier springs throw nature out of step?
Butterflies emerging earlier as world warms
From University of Melbourne press release:
[quote]Butterflies are emerging in spring over 10 days earlier than they did 65 years ago, a shift that has been linked to regional human-induced climate change in a University of Melbourne- led study. The work reveals for the first time, a causal link between increasing greenhouse gases, regional warming and the change in timing of a natural event.
The study found that over a 65 year period, the mean emergence date for adults of the Common Brown butterfly (Heteronympha merope) has shifted 1.6 days earlier per decade in Melbourne, Australia. The findings are unique because the early emergence is causally linked with a simultaneous increase in air temperatures around Melbourne of approximately 0.14°C per decade, and this warming is shown to be human-induced (anthropogenic).[/quote]
First study to link earlier butterfly emergence with climate change
Amazon rainforest suffers with increased droughts
Guest commentary on RealClimate by Simon Lewis, a rainforest experts, rebuts claims a recent paper indicates the Amazon rainforest can withstand droughts, and hence won't be real affected by global warming.
[Stands to reason, really, that a rainforest needs, err, rain and plenty of it - but reason is not something Fox News n co are too bothered about.]
Includes:
[quote]Rainforest persists above a threshold of rainfall, below which one finds savanna. If this threshold is crossed a landscape dominated by rainforest can ‘flip’ to savanna. Therefore a ’slight’ reduction can lead to a ‘dramatic’ reaction. Of course, evidence of a shift to a new lower rainfall climate regime is needed, and evidence of large areas of forest close to that rainfall threshold would be required for the IPCC statement to be reasonable; there is ample published evidence for both.
Overall the conclusions in the IPCC 2007 Fourth Assessment Report are strengthened (because the anomalous result of the Saleska et al. 2007 paper appear to be at fault), not weakened, by the new Samanta et al. study as their press release implies.[/quote]
Up is Down, Brown is Green (with apologies to Orwell)
Heat indirectly killing lizards
From Washington Post:
[quote]an international team of biologists reports that in more than one-tenth of the places in Mexico where lizards flourished in 1975, the reptiles now cannot be found. The researchers predict that by 2080, about 40 percent of local lizard populations worldwide will have died off and 20 percent of lizard species will be extinct.
The reason for the huge die-off appears to be rising temperatures. But it isn't heat that is killing the lizards directly.
Instead, global warming appears to be lengthening the period of the day when lizards must seek shelter or risk fatal overheating. In the breeding season, that sheltering period is now so long that females of many species are unable to eat enough food to produce eggs and offspring.
Springs that start earlier and are warmer than they once were have been noted in many regions of the world in the past three decades. The new study suggests that the phenomenon may be far more important for the survival of some animals than peak summer temperatures, said Barry Sinervo, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz who headed the 26-person research team.
"It is as if something has really happened in world climate and the lizards are telling us that," he said.
The lizard findings also suggest that early stages of global warming may be more than a warning: They may have permanent consequences.
"Many of us have been worried about extinctions in the future," said Raymond B. Huey, a lizard physiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, who wrote a commentary accompanying the study. "This paper shows that extinctions are already here. I think that will really be surprising to most biologists."[/quote]
Global warming blamed for pattern of lizard deaths
Adaptable fast breeders benefit from warming
News from Nature adds to evidence global warming is a threat to biodiversity:
[quote]
The period of global warming linked to the extinction of animal giants such as the woolly mammoth also made its mark on smaller mammals who survived the event.
Adaptable deer mice came to dominate the small furry communities of northern California as the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age, around 11,700 years ago, an excavation of one ancient woodrat nest shows. Overall, the number of small mammalian species in the area declined by about one-third, say Jessica Blois, currently at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her colleagues.
The study, published today in Nature1, emphasizes that concentrating solely on eye-catching species extinctions fails to capture the full impact of climate change on biodiversity. "If we focus only on extinction, we're not getting the whole story," says Blois. The work also suggests that rapidly reproducing, adaptable species — such as the deer mice — could benefit further from future warming.[/quote]
Fast-breeding mice dominate a warming world
Past climate change led to lower diversity in the small and furry.
this is sooooo true... it's
this is sooooo true... it's just sooooooooo depressing that some people do not believe tihs... i hope people will take their stand and prevent GLOBAL WARMING NOW! choose your stand... but my stand? prevent GLOBAL WARMING NOW! so if you want to learn more about global warming how about you visit this blog ^^ preventglobalwarmingnow