Climate change is now causing more local extinction in temperate regions than the tropics, study shows
Imagine returning to a favorite hiking trail 15 years after your first visit and discovering that many of the plants and animals that once lived there are gone. While these species may still exist elsewhere, these disappearances—known ...
University of Arizona researchers compared local extinctions from recent climate change among more than 5,100 plant and animal species from around the world, including hundreds of species of moths and beetles, hundreds of fish and birds, many mammals, frogs, salamanders and lizards, and almost 3,000 species of plants.
In the study published in Nature Climate Change, the researchers found that 49% of temperate species experienced local extinction at the hottest parts of their ranges, compared with only 33% of tropical species.
The research drew on repeated biodiversity surveys from nearly 40,000 sites worldwide, allowing the researchers to compare historical records with surveys conducted years or decades later, making it the largest analysis of climate-driven local extinctions conducted to date.
"For decades, scientists generally believed that temperate species were less vulnerable to climate change," said Gopal Murali, the lead author of the paper and a former postdoctoral scholar at the University of Arizona. "We were surprised by our results, which showed that was not the case."
While many tropical species such as this Asian Tree Frog are threatened by climate change, species in temperate regions are affected by local extinction to an even greater degree, according to the new study. Credit: John Wiens
A European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra), one of the temperate species included in the study that has experienced climate-related local extinctions. Credit: John Wiens
This dead alligator juniper (Juniperus deppeana) from near Bisbee, Arizona is one of the temperate species included in the study that has experienced climate-related local extinctions. Credit: John Wiens