topic: Extinction And Climate Change

topic: Extinction And Climate Change

Social media activity version | Lean version

Freeze on Russian collaboration disrupts urgently needed permafrost data flow
- Accelerating Arctic warming threatens to thaw more and more carbon-rich permafrost and release vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere, but scientists don’t know when such a tipping point event might occur.
- The potential for large and abrupt permafrost emissions adds urgency to better understanding the factors that could turn permafrost from a carbon sink into a carbon source.
- However, more than half of all Arctic permafrost lies under Russian soil, and a two-year freeze on collaborations between Russian scientists and the international scientific community — prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 — is disrupting data flows and hamstringing the polar research community.
- Despite an uncertain geopolitical landscape, scientists are determined to close the data gap with work-arounds such as pivoting to “proxy” field sites, ramping up remote sensing with AI, and mining archived data for new insights. But reintegrating Russian research with other Arctic research is a priority of the scientific community.

The new Arctic: Amid record heat, ecosystems morph and wildlife struggle
- Every species of animal and plant that lives or breeds in the Arctic is experiencing dramatic change. As the polar region warms, species endure extreme weather, shrinking and altered habitat, decreased food availability, and competition from invading southern species.
- A wide array of Arctic organisms that rely on sea ice to feed or breed during some or all of their life cycles are threatened by melt: Over the past 40 years, the Arctic Ocean has lost about 75% of its sea ice volume, as measured at the end of the summer melt season. This translates into a loss of sea ice extent and thickness by half on average.
- Researchers note that the rate of change is accelerating at sea and on land. While species can adapt over time, Arctic ecosystem alterations are too rapid for many animals to adapt, making it difficult to guess which species will prevail, which will perish, and where.
- The only thing that could limit future extinctions, researchers say, is to quickly stop burning fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change.

Barely making it: A conversation with ‘Eight Bears’ author Gloria Dickie
- Gloria Dickie is an award-winning journalist who has documented the state of the world’s eight remaining bear species in a compelling new book, “Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future.”
- Despite the conservation gains made by iconic bear species like the giant panda and the brown bear, most bear species remain at risk.
- In this podcast conversation, the author shares the context behind why some bear species, such as the Andean bear and the polar bear, which face climate-related threats, are much harder to protect.
- “It’s quite tricky for bears threatened by climate change and not just habitat loss,” she says on this episode.

Temperature extremes, plus ecological marginalization, raise species risk: Studies
- In a business-as-usual carbon emissions scenario — humanity’s current trajectory — two in five land vertebrates could be exposed to temperatures equal to, or exceeding, the hottest temperatures of the past decades across at least half of their range by 2099. If warming could be kept well below 2°C (3.6°F), that number drops to 6%, according to a new study.
- More than one in eight mammal species have already lost part of their former geographical range. In many cases, this means those species no longer have access to some (or sometimes any) of their core habitat, making it much more difficult to survive in a warming world.
- When animal populations continue to decline in an area even after it has been protected, one possible explanation may be that the conserved habitat is marginal compared to that found in the species’ historical range.
- In the light of recent pledges to protect 30% of the planet’s surface, it is important to prioritize the right areas. The focus should be on conserving core habitat — which is often highly productive and already intensively used by humans — while respecting the rights and needs of Indigenous people, many of whom have also been pushed to the margins.

Meet the Millennium Forest: A unique tropical island reforestation project
- A two-decade reforestation project on the tropical island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean has not only restored trees found nowhere else in the world, but has also involved nearly every member of the island community in the effort.
- The Millennium Forest, as it’s called, has struggled with invasive species and irregular funding, but has still managed to thrive, adding new plant species — several of them threatened and two thought to have gone extinct. The growing forest is attracting animal species to its habitat, including St. Helena’s only endemic bird.
- Ocean islands pose special challenges for forest restoration, since many plant species evolved in isolation on remote islands, and saw drastic population crashes to the point of extinction, or near-extinction, when people and invasive species arrived.
- As a result, island reforestations typically can’t match original forest composition, but must mix both native and non-native species. The Millennium Forest project has now become a legacy that the current generation is handing down to upcoming ones, according to project founder Rebecca Cairns-Wicks.

Study paints ‘bleak picture’ for nearly all marine life without emissions cuts
- New research published in Nature Climate Change has found that nearly 90% of assessed marine life would be at high or critical risk by 2100 if the world continues upon a high-emissions pathway.
- It found that the risks would be more concentrated in the tropics, and that top predators would be more at risk than species lower down the food chain.
- However, if countries drastically reduce their emissions, the study found that climate risk would decrease for more than 98% of these species.

Video: Biodiversity underpins all, as California is finding out the hard way
- A new episode of “Mongabay Explains” delves into the biodiversity crisis in California, which is known to be one of the most biodiverse states in the U.S., hosting about 6,500 animal species, subspecies and plants.
- California has been bearing the brunt of climate change in recent years as wildfires and drought transform the land.
- The film focuses on three species that are being negatively affected by the climate crisis: California tiger salamanders, acorn woodpeckers, and monarch butterflies.
- The filmmaker says California is the “poster child of what’s happening to our ecosystems around the world.”

Wildlife don’t recognize borders, nor does climate change. Conservation should keep up
- A set of studies focused on the China-Vietnam border demonstrates that the impacts of climate change will make transboundary conservation even more important for endangered species like the Cao-Vit gibbon and tiger geckos.
- Conservation in transboundary areas is already challenging because of physical barriers, like fences and walls, as well as non-physical ones, such as different legal systems or conservation approaches between countries on either side.
- Changes in climatic factors such as temperature and rainfall are likely to mean that, for many species, suitable habitat may be in a different place than it is now — and in many cases, this could be in a different country

In plan for African wildlife corridors, there’s more than one elephant in the room
- An ambitious plan by a conservation NGO calls for linking up elephant habitats throughout East and Southern Africa by establishing wildlife corridors.
- But the “Room to Roam” plan, still at the conceptual stage, faces the difficult challenge of getting the agreement of thousands of private, traditional and public landowners.
- Other conservationists say the plan by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, while the ideal to work toward, fails to address how it would tackle human-elephant conflict or why landowners should go along.
- Savanna elephants are now restricted to just 14% of their former range, often isolated pockets in national parks, forest reserves and wildlife conservancies.

As animals vanish, the plants they spread can’t keep pace with climate change
- As the climate warms, many species will need to change locations to stay within a hospitable temperature range. Half of the world’s plants are dispersed by animals, but as animals are lost from ecosystems, plants are not moving as far.
- The loss of birds and mammals has reduced the ability of animal-dispersed plants to track climate change by 60%, according to new research.
- When animals die off in an ecosystem, we’re often losing the large ones first — those that are the best at long-distance dispersal. So, just a small decline in the number of animal species leads to a massive decline in plants’ ability to track climate change.
- This first global analysis of the loss of seed-dispersers demonstrates the interconnectedness of the climate change and biodiversity crises — two of the nine planetary boundaries identified by scientists. The destabilization and overshoot of one or more of these boundaries due to human interference could cause the failure of critical Earth operating systems.

For Africa’s great apes, even ‘best-case’ climate change will decimate habitat
- Africa’s great apes stand to lose up to 94% of their current suitable habitat by 2050 if humanity makes no effort to slow greenhouse gas emissions, a new study warns.
- Even under the “best-case” scenario, in which global warming can be slowed, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos would still lose 85% of their range.
- The apes’ habitat is under pressure from human encroachment, clearing of wild areas, and climate change impacts that are rendering existing habitats no longer suitable.
- Researchers say there’s a possibility of “range gain,” where climate change makes currently unsuitable areas habitable for the apes, but warn it could take the slow-adapting animals thousands of years to make the move — much slower than the rate at which their current habitat is being lost.

New paper urges shift to ‘nature positivity’ to restore Earth
- A new paper, published by leading conservationists and the heads of various global institutions, argues for adopting a “nature-positive” goal.
- This would require restoring the Earth from 2020, placing the world on a nature positive path by 2030 to mount a full recovery by 2050.
- According to the authors, nature positivity would provide an overarching goal for nature that would coincide with the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) mission and streamline agreements for climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development into one common vision.
- The paper was released a few days before the start of the meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), where parties will provide advice on the CBD’s post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

New map shows where the 80% of species we don’t know about may be hiding
- A new study maps out the regions of the world most likely to hold the highest number of species unknown to science.
- The study found that tropical forests in countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar and Colombia had the highest potential for undescribed species, mostly reptiles and amphibians.
- According to the lead researcher, the main reason for species going undescribed is a lack of funding and taxonomic experts in some parts of the world.
- He added that it’s essential to learn about as many species as possible to protect them, but that undescribed species are currently not taken into account by governing bodies like the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The riddle of Madagascar’s megafauna extinction just got trickier
- Madagascar saw a relatively recent mass extinction event about 1,000 years ago, when gorilla-sized lemurs, towering elephant birds, and grand tortoises were all wiped out from the island.
- A recently published paper complicates the widely-held understanding that humans were to blame for the crash, by drawing attention to a megadrought that the authors say also played a role.
- The new study uses geological evidence from Madagascar and Rodrigues, an island now part of Mauritius about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) east of Madagascar, to construct a climatic record.
- Some scientists have questioned whether the geological record from Madagascar paints an accurate picture of past climate, or whether the data from Rodrigues can shed light on conditions in Madagascar.

With a drastic decline in tropical fruit, Gabon’s rainforest mega-gardeners go hungry
- Climate change appears to be disrupting the yield of fruit trees, a critical food source for many large mammals in Central Africa.
- A new study warns that endangered forest elephants and other keystone species in Lopé National Park in central Gabon — such as western lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, and mandrills — could be facing famine.
- “The changes are drastic,” says Emma Bush, co-lead author of the study. “The massive collapse in fruiting may be due to missing the environmental cue to bear fruit.”
- Some tropical trees depend on a drop in temperature to trigger flowering, but since the 1980s, the region recorded less rainfall and a temperature increase of 1°C.

Extreme El Niño drought, fires contribute to Amazon insect collapse: Study
- A recent study found that dung beetle species experienced significant diversity and population declines in human-modified tropical Brazilian ecosystems in the aftermath of droughts and fires exacerbated after the 2015-2016 El Niño climate event.
- Forests that burned during the El Niño lost, on average, 64% of their dung beetle species while those affected only by drought showed an average decline of 20%. Dung beetles provide vital ecoservices, processing waste and dispersing seeds and soil nutrients.
- For roughly the past three years, entomologists have been sounding alarms over a possible global collapse of insect abundance. In the tropics, climate change, habitat destruction and pesticide use are having clear impacts on insect abundance and diversity. However, a lack of funds and institutional interest is holding back urgently needed research.

Severe drought and other climate impacts are driving the platypus towards extinction
- According to a new study published in the journal Biological Conservation this month, severe drought conditions and heat, combined with habitat loss and other impacts of human activities, are pushing one of Australia’s most enigmatic and iconic endemic species, the duck-billed platypus, toward extinction.
- The study, led by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, examines the potential impacts on platypus populations from the range of threats the animals are facing, including water resource development, fragmentation of river habitats by dams, land clearing for agriculture, invasive species, global climate change, and increasingly severe periods of drought.
- According to the research, current climatic conditions together with the impacts of human activities and other threats could lead to platypus abundance declining anywhere from 47% to 66% over the next 50 years and cause the extinction of local platypus populations across about 40% of the species’ range.

As we act on climate, we mustn’t neglect nature (commentary)
- The discussion of the environment has been unbalanced. While all the talk is about carbon and climate, that is actually only half the story when it comes to our environmental crisis. The other catastrophe is of course the destruction of the natural world, the ecological crisis which threatens a million species with extinction over the coming decades.
- These twin evils are as important and serious as each other, but you wouldn’t think it from a glance at the papers – media coverage of the ecological crisis is being completely eclipsed by the climate, which received eight times more press attention in recent years.
- This imbalance needs to be rectified, and we must start treating our twin crises equally, because we cannot address them in isolation. Natural ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands, and seagrass beds, store huge amounts of carbon, and protecting and restoring them is the cheapest and most effective action we can take to lessen the climate crisis. The trouble is, our efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change can seriously undermine these key natural ecosystems.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

The climate crisis and the pain of losing what we love (commentary)
- World leaders came to the UN last week to decisively tackle climate change again. “This is not a negotiation summit because we don’t negotiate with nature. This is a Climate Action Summit!” declared the UN Secretary-General. But again, global leaders failed and committed to carbon cuts that fall far short of curbing catastrophe.
- In doing so, our leaders committed us to an escalating global environmental crisis that is already unleashing vast changes across Earth’s ecosystems — with many sweeping alterations charted by our scientists, but many other local shifts and absences only noted by those who observe and cherish wild things.
- The loss of familiar weather patterns, plants and animals (from monarchs to native bees) and an invasion of opportunistic living things (Japanese knotweed to Asian longhorned ticks) can foster feelings of vertigo — of being a stranger in a strange land — emotions, so personal and rubbing so raw, they can be hard to describe.
- So I’ve tried to express my own feelings for one place, Vermont, my home, that is today seeing rapid change. At the end of this piece, Mongabay invites you to tally your own natural losses. We’ll share your responses in a later story. This post is a commentary. Views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

What’s in a name? The role of defining ‘wilderness’ in conservation
- In a recent opinion piece published in the journal Nature, several ecologists question recent efforts to delineate areas of wilderness and intactness around the world to define conservation targets.
- They argue that it would be better to build broadly supported consensus that includes the perspectives of local and indigenous communities.
- But the leader of a team that recently mapped out the remaining wilderness on land and in the ocean said that identifying these areas and developing new targets that incorporate their conservation is critical because current international agreements do not prioritize their protection.

Audio: IUCN’s Inger Andersen: “Women represent 3.5 billion solutions”
- On today’s episode, we talk with the Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Inger Andersen.
- Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Switzerland, the IUCN is probably best known for its Red List of Threatened Species, a vital resource on the conservation statuses and extinction risks of tens of thousands of species with whom we share planet Earth. But the IUCN does much more than just maintain the Red List, as Inger Andersen, the organization’s director general, explains.
- Andersen also discusses how updates are made to the Red List (and what updates we can expect to the List in 2019), the importance of empowering women in conservation and sustainable development, the need to tackle unsustainable production and consumption patterns, and why the 2020 installment of the IUCN’s World Conservation Congress will be perhaps the most important yet.

Worst mass extinction event in Earth’s history was caused by global warming analogous to current climate crisis
- The Permian period ended about 250 million years ago with the largest recorded mass extinction in Earth’s history, when a series of massive volcanic eruptions is believed to have triggered global climate change that ultimately wiped out 96 percent of marine species in an event known as the “Great Dying.”
- According to Justin Penn, a doctoral student at the University of Washington (UW), the Permian extinction can help us understand the impacts of climate change in our own current era.
- Penn led a team of researchers that combined models of ocean conditions and animal metabolism with paleoceanographic records to show that the Permian mass extinction was caused by rising ocean temperatures, which in turn forced the metabolism of marine animals to speed up. Increased metabolism meant increased need for oxygen, but the warmer waters could not hold enough oxygen to meet those needs, and ocean life was left gasping for breath.

Global biodiversity treaty still searches for its moment in the spotlight
- Government delegates and conservationists from across the globe gathered last month in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, for the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 14).
- Experts say the biodiversity convention is just as important as that on climate change, whose latest conference is now underway in Poland, but receives a fraction of the attention.
- The Sharm el Sheikh COP largely focused on preparations for 2020, the deadline for achieving current biodiversity targets, and the date of the next biodiversity COP.
- Outcomes of the 2018 COP include progress on a framework for developing a new global biodiversity plan, as well as agreements about the links between health, gender and biodiversity.

Deforested, degraded land restoration a top priority for African leaders
- African leaders met at a summit to discuss land restoration across the continent on Nov. 13, ahead of the U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt.
- Representatives from several African countries shared their countries’ pledges to restore hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of degraded and deforested land in the coming decades.
- The summit’s leaders said they hoped the deliberations during the day-long summit would help African countries in both their contributions to international targets and to the improvement of their natural ecosystems for the benefit of their citizens.

Tsetse fly numbers dwindle in the warming Zambezi Valley
- Tsetse flies carry the microorganism that causes sleeping sickness in humans and livestock, but a recent study reveals that their numbers have dropped at a site in the Zambezi Valley as temperatures have climbed.
- Sleeping sickness, known also as trypanosomiasis, is a debilitating and potentially deadly disease to humans that also kills perhaps 1 million cattle each year.
- The study’s authors say that the decline of the tsetse in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley might be accompanied by a rise in their numbers in cooler locales where they once weren’t as prevalent.

Whales not enough sustenance for polar bears in fast-changing climate
- Scientists believe that whale carcasses may have helped polar bears survive past upswings in temperatures that melted the sea ice from which they usually hunt seals.
- As the current changing climate threatens to make the Arctic ice-free during the summer, this strategy may help some populations of polar bears to survive.
- But according to new study, whale carcasses won’t provide enough food for most bear populations because there are fewer whales than there once were, and human settlements, industry and shipping could affect the bears’ access to any carcasses that do wash ashore.

East Africa’s Albertine Rift needs protection now, scientists say
- The Albertine Rift in East Africa is home to more than 500 species of plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet.
- Created by the stretching apart of tectonic plates, the unique ecosystems of the Albertine Rift are also under threat from encroaching human population and climate change.
- A new report details a plan to protect the landscapes that make up the Rift at a cost of around $21 million per year — a bargain rate, scientists argue, given the number of threatened species that could be saved.

As 2017 hurricane season ends, scientists assess tropical forest harm
- This year’s Atlantic hurricane season – one for the record books – ended on 30 November, seeing six Category 3 to 5 storms wreaking massive destruction across the Caribbean, in the U.S. and Mexico. While damage to the built environment is fairly easy to assess, harm to conserved areas and species is more difficult to determine.
- Satellite images show extensive damage to the 28,400-acre El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, the United States’ only national tropical rainforest. However, observers on the ground say the forest is showing signs of a quick recovery.
- More serious is harm to already stressed, endangered species with small populations. El Yunque’s Critically Endangered Puerto Rican parrot was hard hit: out of 50 endemic wild parrots, 16 are known dead. Likewise, the Endangered imperial parrot endemic to Dominica, spotted just three times since Hurricane Maria.
- Ecosystems and species need time to recover between storms. If the intensity of hurricanes continues to increase due to escalating global warming as predicted, tropical ecosystem and species resilience may be seriously tested.

Lemur species losing favorite food to climate change, new study says
- The greater bamboo lemur tends to feed on nutritious bamboo shoots, switching to the woody trunk of the plant only during the dry season.
- A longer dry season due to climate change could force them to subsist on this less-than-optimal food source for more of the year, potentially pushing this critically endangered species closer to extinction, according to a new study.
- This discovery could have implications for other threatened species, like the giant panda, that depend on one type of food.

Conserving habitat not enough to help species cope with climate change
- New research finds that habitat-based conservation strategies don’t adequately compensate for the range that species in three groups stand to lose due to climate change.
- The team of scientists based in Austria looked at the effects of climate change on 51 species of grasshoppers, butterflies and vascular plants living in central Europe.
- Habitat-based conservation can provide a lifeline, but their model predicts that it won’t be enough to prevent some species from regional extinction.

Sixth mass extinction ‘tsunami’ coming, but preventable
- Biologist Thomas Lovejoy writes in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that we can stop the current spate of biodiversity and species loss that the Earth is experiencing.
- Pointing to a recent study showing that many animals are declining in numbers in addition to those facing the imminent risk of extinction, Lovejoy argues that we need to address all of the impacts that humans have on ecosystems.
- He calls for the restoration of degraded forests and wetlands — activities in which everyone can participate — to facilitate the movement of wildlife between habitats and bring back the services that ecosystems provide.

Ongoing mass extinction causing ‘biological annihilation,’ new study says
- Building on research in which they showed that two species have gone extinct per year over the past century, a team of biologists analyzed the population trends for 27,600 vertebrates around the world.
- They found that nearly a third of the animals they looked at were on the decline.
- In a closer look at 177 well-studied mammals, the team found that all had lost 30 percent or more of their home ranges, and 40 percent had lost at least 80 percent of their habitat.

Over the bridge: The battle for the future of the Kinabatangan
- Proponents of the project contend that a bridge and associated paved road to Sukau would have helped the town grow and improve the standard of living for its residents.
- Environmental groups argue that the region’s unrealized potential for high-end nature tourism could bring similar economic benefits without disturbing local populations of elephants, orangutans and other struggling wildlife.
- The mid-April cancellation of the bridge was heralded as a success for rainforest conservation, but bigger questions loom about the future of local communities, the sanctuary and its wildlife.

Extinct mammoths and rhinos portend a grim future in a warming climate
- The new analysis shows that, while hunting caused problems for cold-dwelling rhinos and mammoths, and in some cases drove them from certain areas completely, the changing climate ultimately led to their extinction.
- Hunting pressure also eradicated some species of horses, but others, such as wild horses (E. przewalskii) and donkeys (E. asinus), were able to survive.
- Along with deer, these mammals probably survived because of their smaller sizes, increased mobility and higher reproductive rates than either mammoths or rhinos.
- With just a 1-degree Celsius rise in Earth’s temperature per century, we could see the same rise in temperatures over the next 500-1,000 years that took 10,000-15,000 years at the end of the last ice age.

Climate change driving widespread local extinctions; tropics most at risk
- Climate change forces three fates on species: adapt, flee or die. A new meta-analysis compiled data from 27 studies to see how species distributions have changed over timescales of 10-159 years, and included 976 species. Almost half (47 percent) had seen some local populations disappear along the warming edge of their ranges.
- The tropics were especially vulnerable to climate change-driven local extinctions. The data showed that 55 percent of tropical and subtropical species experienced local extinctions, whereas the figure was only 39 percent for temperate species. Though the tropical data set was not large, this higher tropical risk concurs with past studies.
- Tropical species are at greater risk due to climate change because they live in some of the world’s hottest environments, so are already at the upper limit of known temperature adaptation, are restricted to small areas, particular rare habitats, and narrow temperature ranges, or have poor dispersal ability and slow reproductive rates.
- Scientists see multiple solutions to the problem: beyond the curbing of greenhouse gas emissions, they recommend conserving large core areas of habitat, and preserving strong connectivity between those core areas, so plants and animals can move more freely between them as required as the world warms.

Ecological trap ensnares endangered African penguins
- Juveniles of the Western Cape population of African penguins, an IUCN-listed endangered species, still frequent a subpar hunting ground, even though other options are within reach.
- This population of penguins has declined by 80 percent in recent decades.
- The current research projects that Western Cape penguin numbers are half of what they would be without this ecological trap.

‘Revolutionary’ new biodiversity maps reveal big gaps in conservation
- The research uses the chemical signals of tree communities to reveal their different survival strategies and identify priority areas for protection.
- Currently, the Carnegie Airborne Observatory’s airplane provides the only way to create these biodiversity maps. But the team is working to install the technology in an Earth-orbiting satellite.
- Once launched, the $200 million satellite would provide worldwide biodiversity mapping updated every month.

‘Running out of time’: 60 percent of primates sliding toward extinction
- The assessment of 504 primate species found that 60 percent are on track toward extinction, and the numbers of 75 percent are going down.
- Agricultural expansion led to the clearing of primate habitat nearly three times the size of France between 1990 and 2010, impinging on the range of 76 percent of apes and monkeys.
- By region, Madagascar and Southeast Asia have the most species in trouble. Nearly 90 percent of Madagascar’s more than 100 primates are moving toward extinction.
- Primates also face serious threats from hunting, logging and ranching.

Climate change pledges not nearly enough to save tropical ecosystems
- Last December, 178 nations pledged to cut their carbon emissions enough to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius — with an aspirational goal of 1.5 degrees. A study in the journal Nature has found that pledges so far are insufficient to keep the world from blasting past the 2 degree mark, even as scientists meet this week in Geneva to consider plans to reach the goal.
- While scientists have long known that extreme temperature rises in the Arctic presaged ecosystem devastation there, they believed that less extreme temperature rises in the tropics might have smaller, less serious impacts on biodiversity.
- Recent findings, however, show that major tropical ecosystems, ranging from coral reefs and mangroves to cloud forests and rainforests are already seriously threatened by climate change with likely dangerous repercussions for wildlife.
- While nations work to commit to, and achieve, their Paris commitments, scientists say it is vital that tropical countries continue to protect large core tracts of wild land linked by wild corridors in order to conserve maximum biodiversity — allowing for free, unhampered movement of species as climate change unfolds.

Scientists declare first mammal extinction due to climate change
- According to a new study by scientists with the University of Queensland and the Threatened Species Unit at the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, the Bramble Cay melomys (Melomys rubicola) is known only from a very small island with a total area of approximately 4 hectare (10 acres) called Bramble Cay in the northeast Torres Strait, between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea.
- A limited survey in March 2014 failed to find any of the rodents on the island, so the scientists returned later that year with the explicit goal of determining whether or not the Bramble Cay melomys still existed and enacting emergency measures to conserve any remaining individuals that might have been found
- The researchers were ultimately unsuccessful in finding any of the rodents, however. They attributed the species’ extinction to sea level rise and extreme weather events driven by rising global temperatures.

Nola, one of the last four northern white rhinos in the world, dies at San Diego Zoo
- On November 22, Nola, a critically endangered female northern white rhino, was euthanized due to her deteriorating health.
- Nola’s death brings the northern white rhinos dangerously close to extinction.
- The remaining three, potentially breeding, northern white rhinos live at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

Empty seas? Scientists warn of an industrialized ocean

If nothing done, extinction levels in the ocean could soon resemble those on land Bluefin tuna. Although most bluefin tuna species have been decimated by overfishing, they are still caught. Photo by: Stewart Butterfield. This is obvious, but still important: humans are not a marine species. Even as we have colonized most of our planet’s […]
Thought wiped out by climate change, ‘extinct’ snail rediscovered in Seychelles

Discovery offers ‘incredible second chance’ at species protection Once plentiful on a tiny coral atoll in the Indian Ocean, the Aldabra banded snail (Rachistia aldabrae) was declared extinct in 1997 as one of the world’s first recorded direct casualties of climate change. But last month, a monitoring team found a population on one of the […]
Extinction crisis: rising sea levels will submerge thousands of islands

Sea levels are rising at the highest rate in thousands of years, putting at risk low-lying islands around the world. In a new study published in Nature Conservation, researchers found that projected rises in sea level stand to swamp more than 10,000 islands, displacing human communities and wiping many unique species off the face of […]
Microhabitats could buffer some rainforest animals against climate change

As temperatures increase worldwide due to anthropogenic climate change, scientists are scrambling to figure out if species will be able to survive rapidly warming ecosystems. A new study in Global Change Biology offers a little hope. Studying reptiles and amphibians in the Philippines, scientists say some of these species may be able to seek refuge […]
Climate change could kill off Andean cloud forests, home to thousands of species found nowhere else

One of the richest ecosystems on the planet may not survive a hotter climate without human help, according to a sobering new paper in the open source journal PLoS ONE. Although little-studied compared to lowland rainforests, the cloud forests of the Andes are known to harbor explosions of life, including thousands of species found nowhere […]
The Hawaiian silversword: another warning on climate change

The Hawaiian silversword (Argyroxyphium sandwicense), a beautiful, spiny plant from the volcanic Hawaiian highlands may not survive the ravages of climate change, according to a new study in Global Change Biology. An unmistakable plant, the silversword has long, sword-shaped leaves covered in silver hair and beautiful flowering stalks that may tower to a height of […]
Will Amazon species lose the climate change race?

Insect nymph in Manu National Park, Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Deforestation could increase the risk of biodiversity loss in the Amazon by forcing species to migrate further in order to remain at equilibrium with changing climates, says new research. “As migration models are made more realistic through the inclusion of multiple climatic, biotic, […]
Scientists could name every species on Earth in 50 years

New species of agama lizard discovered in remote rainforest in Vietnam: Calotes bachae. Photo by Peter Geissler. A bold new paper in Science argues that the world’s species could be named and described before they vanish into extinction, though the threat of eventual extinction will remain for many, especially as climate change worsens. The scientists […]
Scientists: if we don’t act now we’re screwed

Aerial view of the infamous Río Huaypetue gold mine in the Peruvian Amazon. This remote but massive gold mine is known for the destruction of primary rainforest, widespread mercury pollution, and child and slave labor. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Scientists warn that the Earth may be reaching a planetary tipping point due to a […]
For Earth Day, 17 celebrated scientists on how to make a better world

Observations of planet Earth from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on July 11, 2005. Photo by: NASA. Seventeen top scientists and four acclaimed conservation organizations have called for radical action to create a better world for this and future generations. Compiled by 21 past winners of the prestigious Blue Planet Prize, a new paper […]
Carbon emissions paving way for mass extinction in oceans

Ocean acidification growing at a rate faster than anytime in 300 million years. To the left a discoaster of marine plankton before an ocean acidification event 56 million years ago, and to the right its counterpart corroded by ocean acidification event. Image taken with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Human emissions of carbon dioxide may […]
Ocean prognosis: mass extinction

A new report finds that the oceans are facing a mass extinction. One day many of the world’s marine species may only be found in aquariums, if at all, such as this green sea anemone in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Multiple and converging human impacts on the world’s oceans are […]
Warmer temperatures may be exterminating pika populations one-by-one

An American pika (Ochotona princeps) in Colorado. Photo in Public Domain. The last decade has not been a good one for the American pika (Ochotona princeps) according to a new study in Global Change Biology. Over the past ten years extinction rates have increased by nearly five times for pika populations in the Great Basin […]
Climate change caused by deforestation triggers species migration

Local climate shifts caused by deforestation and land cover change are causing insects to migrate to higher — and cooler — habitats, reports a new study published in the journal Biotropica. The research has implications for predicting how species will respond to climate change. Analyzing distribution of dung beetles in tropical South America, Trond Larsen […]
Not enough data on world’s tropical plants to predict impact of warming world

How many tropical plant species are threatened by climate change? Which plants have big enough ranges to survive a warming world, not to mention deforestation? How likely is it that the tropics are undergoing a current mass extinction? These questions may appear straight forward, but a new study in Global Change Biology finds that researchers […]
The ocean crisis: hope in troubled waters, an interview with Carl Safina

The view from Lazy Point. Photo courtesy of Carl Safina. Being compared—by more than one reviewer—to Henry Thoreau and Rachel Carson would make any nature writer’s day. But add in effusive reviews that compare one to a jazz musician, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Darwin, and you have a sense of the praise heaped on Carl […]
Photos: Scientists race to protect world’s most endangered corals

As corals around the world disappear at alarming rates, scientists are racing to protect the ones they can. At a workshop led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the world’s foremost coral experts met in response to a decade of unprecedented reef destruction to identify and develop conservation plans for the ten most critically […]
Disappearance of arctic ice could create ‘grolar bears’, narlugas; trigger biodiversity loss

The melting of the Arctic Ocean may result in a loss of marine mammal biodiversity, reports a new study published in the journal Nature and conducted jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the University of Alaska, and the University of Massachusetts. The study is the first to project what might happen if […]
African apes threatened by rising temperatures

Most people wish each day had more than 24 hours. But as the planet heats up, that limited number of hours might push endangered African apes even closer to extinction by making their current habitats unsuitable for their lifestyle, according to a controversial study published on 23 July in the Journal of Biogeography. Researchers from […]
Carbon emissions hurting coral recruitment

While research has shown that ocean acidification from rising CO2 levels in the ocean imperils the growth and survival mature coral reefs, a new study has found that it may also negatively impact burgeoning corals, by significantly lowering the success of coral recruitment. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) […]
Photos: world’s top ten ‘lost frogs’

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) have sent teams of researchers to 14 countries on five continents to search for the world’s lost frogs. These are amphibian species that have not been seen for years—in some cases even up to a century—but may still survive in the wild. […]
Scientists hunt for ‘lost frogs’ around the globe

From now through October, teams of scientists will be scouring through leaf litters, in shallow pools, under rocks, and in tree trunks for the world’s ‘lost frogs’. Searching in 14 countries on five continents, the researchers are looking for some 100 species of frogs that have not been seen in decades and in some cases […]
Coral reefs doomed by climate change

The world’s coral reefs are in great danger from dual threats of rising temperatures and ocean acidification, Charlie Veron, Former Chief Scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, told scientists attending the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation meeting in Sanur, Bali. Tracing the geological history of coral reefs over hundreds of millions of […]
Study points to global snake decline

A number of reports over the last decade have shown amphibians, lizards, fish, and birds facing steep population declines across species and continents, providing further evidence that the planet is undergoing a mass extinction. Now a new study in Biology Letters adds another group of animals to that list: snakes. Studying 17 snake populations from […]
Already on the edge, lemurs could become victims of climate change

Expanding beyond well-known victims such as polar bears and coral reefs, the list is growing of species likely to be hard hit by climate change: from lizards to birds to amphibians. Now a new study has uncovered another group of species vulnerable to a warmer world: lemurs. New research in Global Change Biology finds that […]
Climate change devastating lizards worldwide: 20 percent estimated to face extinction

Lizards have evolved a variety of methods to escape predators: some will drop their tail if caught, many have coloring and patterning that blends in with their environment, a few have the ability to change their colors as their background changes, while a lot of them depend on bursts of speed to skitter away, but […]
World failing on every environmental issue: an op-ed for Earth Day

The biodiversity crisis, the climate crisis, the deforestation crisis: we are living in an age when environmental issues have moved from regional problems to global ones. A generation or two before ours and one might speak of saving the beauty of Northern California; conserving a single species—say the white rhino—from extinction; or preserving an ecological […]
Seed dispersal in the face of climate change, an interview with Arndt Hampe

The second in an interview series with participants in the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium. Without seed dispersal plants could not survive. Seed dispersal—i.e. birds spreading seeds or wind carrying seeds—means the mechanism by which a seed is moved from its parent tree to a new area; if fortunate the seed will sprout […]
The Asian Animal Crisis

The United Nation declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). One of the goals of the IYB is to celebrate the achievements of the Convention of Biological Diversity signed by 192 countries since 1992. But what have we accomplished since 1992? Did we put an end to biodiversity loss? The truth is that […]
Falklands Dispute: Argentine Sovereignty Won’t Solve the Problem

With Britain now moving to explore for oil and gas in the Falkland Islands, Argentina has cried foul. Buenos Aires claims that the Falklands, or the Malvinas as Argentines refer to the islands, represent a “colonial enclave” in the south Atlantic. The islands have been a British possession since 1833, and the local inhabitants consider […]
Why seed dispersers matter, an interview with Pierre-Michel Forget, chair of the FSD International Symposium

The first in an interview series with participants in the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium. There are few areas of research in tropical biology more exciting and more important than seed dispersal. Seed dispersal—the process by which seeds are spread from parent trees to new sprouting ground—underpins the ecology of forests worldwide. In […]
Photos: Madagascar’s wonderful and wild frogs, an interview with Sahonagasy

New website works to save Madagascar’s incredible diversity of frogs. To save Madagascar’s embattled and beautiful amphibians, scientists are turning to the web. A new site built by herpetologists, Sahonagasy, is dedicated to gathering and providing information about Madagascar’s unique amphibians in a bid to save them from the growing threat of extinction. “The past […]
Polar bears are newcomers on the world stage

One of the most well-known animals, the polar bear, is a newcomer on the world stage, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By studying the DNA of an ancient polar bear jawbone uncovered in 2004 in Norway scientists have for the first time pinpointed the time when the […]
New study: overhunting by humans killed off Australia’s megafauna
For over a century and a half researchers have debated whether humans or climate change killed off Australia’s megafuana. A new paper in Science argues with new evidence that Australia’s giant marsupials, monstrous reptiles, and large flightless birds were brought to extinction not by an unruly climate, but by the arrival of humans. Employing improved […]
Photos: expedition in Ecuador reveals numerous new species in threatened cloud forest

An expedition into rainforests on Ecuador’s coast by Reptile & Amphibian Ecology International (RAEI) have revealed a number of possible new species including a blunt-snouted, slug-eating snake; four stick insects; and up to 30 new ‘rain’ frogs. The blunt-snouted snake, which feeds on gastropods like slugs, is especially interesting, as its closest relative is in […]
Saving biodiversity ‘on the same scale’ as climate change: German Chancellor

In a kick-off event for the UN’s Year of Biodiversity, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, compared the importance of saving biodiversity to stopping climate change. “The question of preserving biological diversity is on the same scale as climate protection,” Merkel said today according to Reuters. Germany is the current chair of the UN Convention on Biodiversity. […]
Gone: a look at extinction over the past decade

A survey of twelve species lost to extinction over the past ten years. No one can say with any certainty how many species went extinct from 2000-2009. Because no one knows if the world’s species number 3 million or 30 million, it is impossible to guess how many known species—let alone unknown—may have vanished recently. […]
Climate change causing irreversible acidification in world’s oceans

A new study from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity has synthesized over 300 reports on ocean acidification caused by climate change. The report finds that increasing acidification will lead to irreversible damage in the world’s oceans, creating a less biodiverse marine environment. Released today the report determines that the threat to marine […]
Photos: ten beloved species threatened by global warming

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released a list of ten species that are likely to be among the hardest hit by climate change, including beloved species such as the leatherback sea turtle, the koala, the emperor penguin, the clownfish, and the beluga whale. The timing of the list coincides with […]
Extinctions on the rise in the Galapagos: fishing and global warming devastating islands’ species

We may never see again the Galapagos black-spotted damselfish, the beautiful 24-rayed sunstar, or the Galapagos stringweed. These species from Galapagos waters may all very well be extinct. Other species are on the brink, such as the Galapagos penguin and the Floreana cup coral. A new report in Global Change Biology reveals that in just […]
Not just the polar bear: ten American species that are feeling the heat from global warming

A new report, America’s Hottest Species, highlights a variety of American wildlife that are currently threatened by climate change from a small bird to a coral reef to the world’s largest marine turtle. “Global warming is like a bulldozer shoving species, already on the brink of extinction, perilously closer to the edge of existence,” said […]
Zoos call for deeper emission cuts to save life on Earth

To save species around the world zoos say deeper emission cuts are needed than governments are currently proposing. Over 200 zoos worldwide have signed a petition calling on governments to set the target of atmospheric carbon below 350 parts per million (ppm) far lower than most government targets. The signatories, each a member of the […]
Declaration calls for more wilderness protected areas to combat global warming

Meeting this week in Merida, Mexico, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (WILD9) has released a declaration that calls for increasing wilderness protections in an effort to mitigate climate change. The declaration, which is signed by a number of influential organizations, argues that wilderness areas—both terrestrial and marine—act as carbon sinks, while preserving biodiversity and vital […]
Global warming threatens desert life
There have been numerous studies showing how climate change is impacting a variety of environments—from the Arctic to coral reefs to alpine—but how could a warmer world damage deserts, already the world’s warmest and driest environments? New research shows that the key is nitrogren. A new study in Science found that as deserts become hotter […]
Hunting across Southeast Asia weakens forests’ survival, An interview with Richard Corlett

Seventh in a series of interviews with participants at the 2009 Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) conference. A large flying fox eats a fruit ingesting its seeds. Flying over the tropical forests it eventually deposits the seeds at the base of another tree far from the first. One of these seeds takes root, […]
Present day tropical plant families survived in warmer, wetter tropics 58 million years ago

Fifty eight million years ago the tropical rainforests of South America shared many similarities with today’s Neotropical forests, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Looking at over 2,000 fossils in Colombia from one of the world’s largest open pit coal mines, scientists were able to recreate for the […]
Freshwater species worse off than land or marine

Scientists have announced that freshwater species are likely the most threatened on earth. Extinction rates for freshwater inhabitants are currently four to six times the rates for terrestrial and marine species. Yet, these figures have not led to action on the ground. “Few are aware of the catastrophic decline in freshwater biodiversity at both local […]
To save species conservationists must focus on conserving at least 5,000 individuals

The tiger has an estimated population of 3,400-5,000 individuals; the giant panda, 1,000-2,000; the North Atlantic right whale, 350-400; the Sumatran rhino, 250; and the California condor, 170. A new study shows that none of these species is safe from extinction yet, although each has received considerable conservation attention compared to most imperiled species. The […]
Will tropical trees survive climate change?, an interview with Kenneth J. Feeley

Fifth in a series of interviews with participants at the 2009 Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) conference. One of the most pressing issues in the conservation today is how climate change will affect tropical ecosystems. The short answer is: we don’t know. Because of this, more and more scientists are looking at the […]
Economic crisis threatens conservation programs and endangered species, an interview with Paula Kahumbu of WildlifeDirect

Founded in 2004 by legendary conservationist Richard Leakey, WildlifeDirect is an innovative member of the conservation community. WildlifeDirect is really a meta-organization: it gathers together hundreds of conservation initiatives who blog regularly about the trials and joys of practicing on-the-ground conservation. From stories of gorillas reintroduced in the wild to tracking elephants in the Okavango […]
Photos: hundreds of new species discovered in Himalayan region, threatened by climate change

Scientists from a variety of organizations have found over 350 new species in the Eastern Himalayas over the past ten years according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The discoveries have included a ‘flying’ frog, the world’s smallest and oldest deer, and a fossil of the world’s oldest gecko frozen in […]
First comprehensive study of insect endangerment: ten percent of dragonflies threatened

A lot of time, effort, and funds have been spent on programs evaluating the threat of extinction to species around the world. Yet insects have not benefited from these programs, which have largely focused on more ‘charismatic’ species such as mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. This gap is clearly shown by the fact that 42 […]
New report predicts dire consequences for every U.S. region from global warming

Sobering report is the most comprehensive to date. Government officials and scientists released a 196 page report detailing the impact of global warming on the U.S. yesterday. The study, commissioned in 2007 during the Bush Administration, found that every region of the U.S. faces large-scale consequences due to climate change, including higher temperatures, increased droughts, […]
Network of parks can save Africa’s birds in warmer world

As Africa’s birds are forced to move habitats due to climate change, a new study finds that the continent’s current park system will continue to protect up to 90 percent of bird species. “We looked at bird species across the whole network of protected areas in Africa and the results show that wildlife conservation areas […]
Permian mass extinction caused by giant volcanic eruption
Two hundred and sixty million years ago the Earth experienced its worst mass extinction: 95 percent of marine life and 70 percent of terrestrial life vanished. Long a subject of dispute, researchers from the University of Leeds believe they have confirmed the reason behind the so-called Permian extinction. A giant volcanic eruption in what is […]
Study refutes criticism of polar bear listing under the Endangered Species Act

In May 2008 the Bush Administration listed the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The listing immediately received allegations of being politically biased and not based on sound science. However, a new paper addresses the allegations point by point and concludes that the decision to add the polar bear under the ESA was […]
Bird migrations lengthen due to global warming, threatening species

Global warming is likely to increase the length of bird migrations, some of which already extend thousands of miles. The increased distance could imperil certain species, as it would require more energy reserves than may be available. The new study, published in the Journal of Biogeography, studied the migration patterns of European Sylvia warblers from […]
Cutting greenhouse gases now would save world from worst global warming scenarios

If nations worked together to produce large cuts in greenhouse gases, the world would be saved from global warming’s worst-case-scenarios, according to a new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The study found that, although temperatures are set to rise this century, cutting greenhouse gases by 70 percent the globe could avoid […]
Revolutionary new theory overturns modern meteorology with claim that forests move rain

Largely ignored by scientific community, new theory could change how future generations view forests Two Russian scientists, Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva of the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics, have published a revolutionary theory that turns modern meteorology on its head, positing that forests—and their capacity for condensation—are actually the main driver of winds rather than […]
Climate change could devastate lizards in the tropics

Salamander populations collapse in Central America

Salamanders in Central America — like frogs, toads, and other amphibians at sites around the world — are rapidly and mysteriously declining, report researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Disturbingly, salamanders are disappearing from protected areas and otherwise pristine habitats. The researchers, led by Dr. David Wake of the […]
Monstrous prehistoric snake provides glimpse of warmer tropical forests

Global warming may doom emperor penguins to extinction

Symposium tackles big question: how many species will survive our generation

An overview of the Smithsonian’s Symposium: “Will the rainforests survive? New Threats and Realities in the Tropical Extinction Crisis”
What is the greatest threat to rainforests: habitat destruction or climate change?

Renowned scientists discuss threats to rainforests at symposium
Tropical species face high extinction risk

Tropical species face high extinction risk Tropical species face high extinction risk mongabay.com December 10, 2008
Yellowstone amphibians in decline due to climate change

Yellowstone amphibians in decline due to climate change Yellowstone amphibians in decline due to climate change mongabay.com October 27, 2008 Climate change appears to be responsible for a “marked drop” in the population of three of four species of amphibian once common to Yellowstone National Park, the world’s oldest national park, report researchers writing in […]
Armageddon for amphibians? Frog-killing disease jumps Panama Canal

Armageddon for amphibians? Frog-killing disease jumps Panama Canal Armageddon for amphibians? Frog-killing disease jumps Panama Canal Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com October 12, 2008
Rainforest biodiversity at risk from global warming

Rainforest biodiversity at risk from global warming Rainforest biodiversity at risk from global warming mongabay.com October 9, 2008
52% of amphibians, 35% of birds at risk from climate change

52% of amphibians, 35% of birds at risk from climate change 52% of amphibians, 35% of birds at risk from climate change mongabay.com October 8, 2008
Past climate change drove mass extinction in Pakistan

Past climate change drove mass extinction in Pakistan Past climate change drove mass extinction in Pakistan Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com September 26, 2008 Past climate change cut mammal biodiversity by over half in lost ecosystem Research on long-vanished mammals in the Siwalik region of Northern Pakistan has yielded results relevant for today. In the span of […]
Coral susceptibility to bleaching due to small differences in symbiotic relationship

Coral susceptibility to bleaching due to small differences in symbiotic relationship Coral susceptibility to bleaching due to small differences in symbiotic relationship Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com July 22, 2008 Coral reefs are now considered the second most threatened group of animals in the world, with nearly one-third of corals listed as endangered (amphibians retain the dubious […]
Moving species may be only way to save them from climate change

Moving species may be only way to save them from climate change Moving species may be only way to save them from climate change Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com July 17, 2008 Desperate times call for desperate measures, according to a new paper in Science. Conservation scientists from the US, the UK, and Australia are calling for […]
Birds face higher risk of extinction than conventionally thought

Birds face higher risk of extinction than conventionally thought Birds face higher risk of extinction than conventionally thought An interview with ornithologist Dr. Cagan Sekercioglu mongabay.com July 15, 2008 Birds may face higher risk of extinction than conventionally thought, says a bird ecology and conservation expert from Stanford University. Dr. Cagan H. Sekercioglu, a senior […]
1/3 of corals face extinction

1/3 of corals face extinction 1/3 of corals face extinction mongabay.com July 10, 2008 Nearly one-third of reef-building corals are vulnerable to extinction, according to an assessment of 845 species of coral. Rising temperatures, increased incidence of disease, and human disturbance are driving the trend. Assessing the conservation status of corals from around the world […]
Humans, and global warming, responsible for extinction of mammoths

Humans and global warming responsible for extinction of mammoths Humans and global warming responsible for extinction of mammoths mongabay.com March 31, 2008 Study confirms that habitat fragmentation, caused by climate change, split species into small populations, making them more vulnerable to extinction. The combination of human hunting pressure and climate change was responsible for the […]
Global warming will significantly increase bird extinctions

Climate change will significantly increase bird extinctions Climate change will significantly increase bird extinctions By Louis Bergeron, Stanford University December 5, 2007 Where do you go when you’ve reached the top of a mountain and you can’t go back down? It’s a question increasingly relevant to plants and animals, as their habitats slowly shift to […]
Global warming may provoke evolution

Global warming may provoke evolution Global warming may provoke evolution mongabay.com November 26, 2007 Some 80 million years ago, during a period of global warming, a group of relatively immobile salamanders trekked from western North America to the continent that became Asia, report researchers writing in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the […]
Mass extinctions happen when temperatures are the warmest

Worst mass extinctions occur when temperatures are the warmest Worst mass extinctions occur when temperatures are the warmest Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com October 24, 2007 Warming temperatures could trigger a mass extinction event’, warn scientists writing in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Comparing ancient records of marine and terrestrial diversity […]
European blood-sucker falls victim to global warming
- Europe’s only known land leech may be on the brink of extinction due to shifts in climate, report researchers writing in the journal Naturwissenschaften.
- The findings are significant because they suggest that “human-induced climate change without apparent habitat destruction can lead to the extinction of populations of cold-adapted species that have a low colonization ability,” according to the authors.

Climate change claims a snail
- The Aldabra banded snail (Rachistia aldabrae), a rare and poorly known species found only on Aldabra atoll in the Indian Ocean, has apparently gone extinct due to declining rainfall in its niche habitat.
- While some may question lamenting the loss of a lowly algae-feeding gastropod on some unheard of chain of tropical islands, its unheralded passing is nevertheless important for the simple reason that Rachistia aldabrae may be a pioneer.
- As climate change increasingly brings local and regional shifts in precipitation and temperature, other species are expected to follow in its path.

10-20% of birds extinct by 2100 due to global warming, deforestation

10-20% of birds extinct by 2100 due to global warming, deforestation 10-20% of birds extinct by 2100 due to global warming, deforestation mongabay.com June 4, 2007 Ten to twenty percent of the world’s terrestrial bird species could be threatened with extinction by 2100 due to climate change and habitat destruction reports a study published in […]
Climate change leaving amphibians behind in extinction race

Facing extinction, amphibians fail to cope with global warming Facing extinction, amphibians fail to cope with global warming mongabay.com April 30, 2007 Despite surviving the age of dinosaurs and numerous bouts of severe climate change, amphibians are not keeping pace with the current rate of global change, reports a new study published in the journal […]
Protected areas must be adapted to survive global warming

Protected areas must be adapted to survive global warming Protected areas must be adapted to survive global warming Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com April 3, 2007 Protected areas can play an important role in reducing biodiversity loss due to global warming, reports a new study published March 30 in the journal Frontiers in Environment and Ecology […]
Global warming could hurt salmon fisheries in Pacific Northwest

Global warming could hurt salmon fisheries in Pacific Northwest Global warming could hurt salmon fisheries in Pacific Northwest mongabay.com April 2, 2007 Global warming could cause Chinook salmon populations in Washington state to decline 20-40 percent by 2050 according to a new study published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National […]
Climate change will cause biomes to shift and disappear

Global warming will cause local climates to shift and disappear Climate change will increase extinction risk, especially in the tropics Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com March 26, 2007 Many of the world’s local climates could be radically changed if global warming trends continue, reports a new study published in the early online edition of the journal […]
Extinction, like climate change, is complicated

Impact of global warming on extinction debated Extinction is a hotly debated, but poorly understood topic in science. The same goes for climate change. When scientists try to forecast the impact of global change on future biodiversity levels, the results are contentious, to say the least. While some argue that species have managed to survive […]
Global warming may cause biodiversity extinction
- Extinction is a hotly debated, but poorly understood topic in science. The same goes for climate change
- When scientists try to forecast the impact of global change on future biodiversity levels, the results are contentious, to say the least.
- While some argue that species have managed to survive worse climate change in the past and that current threats to biodiversity are overstated, many biologists say the impacts of climate change and resulting shifts in rainfall, temperature, sea levels, ecosystem composition, and food availability will have significant effects on global species richness.

Biodiversity extinction crisis looms says renowned biologist

An Interview with Dr. Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden Jump to Interview What do tigers in India, chameleons in Madagascar, redwood trees in California, and tube worms living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents have in common? They are all components of Earth’s biological diversity, or “biodiversity” for short. Biodiversity is the sum of […]
Role of global warming in extinction may be overestimated

Role of global warming in extinction may be overestimated Role of global warming in extinction may be overestimated mongabay.com March 1, 2007 Extinction is a hotly debated, but poorly understood topic in science. The same goes for climate change. When you bring the two together to forecast the impact of global change on biodiversity, chaos […]
Extinction risk accelerated when interacting human threats interact

A new study warns that the simultaneous effect of habitat fragmentation, overexploitation, and climate warming could increase the risk of a species’ extinction. Writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of scientists led by Camilo Mora at Dalhousie University, report that experiments with microscopic rotifers (a type of zooplankton) show that […]
Past global warming suggests massive temperature shift in our future

Past global warming suggests massive temperature shift in our future Past global warming suggests massive temperature shift in our future mongabay.com December 7, 2006 If past climate change is any indication, Earth could be in store for some significant global warming according to research published in the December 8, 2006, issue of the journal Science. […]
Fragmentation killing species in the Amazon rainforest

Fragmentation reduces biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest and worsens global warming Fragmentation reduces biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest and worsens global warming Rhett Butler, mongabay.com November 27, 2006 Forest fragmentation is rapidly eroding biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest and could worsen global warming according to research to be published this week in the journal Proceedings […]
Worst mass extinction shifted entire ecology of the world’s oceans

Worst mass extinction shifted entire ecology of the world’s oceans Worst mass extinction shifted entire ecology of the world’s oceans mongabay.com November 23, 2006 New research suggests that Earth’s greatest mass extinction did more than wipe out an estimated 95% of marine species and 70% of land species; it fundamentally changed the ecology of the […]
Migratory species threatened by global warming

Migratory species threatened by global warming Migratory species threatened by global warming mongabay.com November 19, 2006 Urgent action is need to prevent extinction of migratory species due to global warming says a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Citingt a number of examples, the report says that climate change is having an […]
Global warming reduces polar bear survival rate

Global warming reduces polar bear survival rate Global warming reduces polar bear survival rate mongabay.com November 16, 2006 Polar bear survival rates have dropped significantly in the past 20 years, probably due to melting sea ice caused by higher temperatures, according to a study released this week. The study, published by scientists from the U.S. […]
Species evolution not making up for extinction caused by climate change

Species evolution not making up for extinction caused by climate change Species evolution not making up for extinction caused by climate change mongabay.com November 14, 2006 Current global warming has already caused extinctions in the world’s most sensitive habitats and will continue to cause more species to go extinct over the next 50 to 100 […]
Global warming could doom many bird species

Global warming could doom many bird species Global warming could doom many bird species mongabay.com November 13, 2006 Up to 72 percent of bird species in northeastern Australia and more than a third in Europe could go extinct unless action is taken to address global warming said a report from environmental group WWF. The report, […]
Climate Change Threatens Lemurs

Climate Change Threatens Lemurs Climate Change Threatens Lemurs Earthwatch Institute September 18, 2006 Tropical rainforests are among the most stable environments on Earth, but they are still no match for global climate change. Dr. Patricia Wright, the widely admired primatologist and Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, finds that climate change could mean the […]
Recovery of biodiversity after dinosaurs was chaotic

Recovery of biodiversity after dinosaurs was chaotic Recovery of biodiversity after dinosaurs was chaotic Recovery following mass extinction may be complex mongabay.com August 24, 2006 A new study suggests that the recovery of biodiversity following the extinction of dinosaurs may have been chaotic with broken ecological links leading to unbalanced plant-insect food webs. With present-day […]
Climate change, not hunters, killed ancient Australia’s giant kangaroos

Climate change, not hunters, killed ancient Australia’s giant kangaroos Climate change, not hunters, killed ancient Australia’s giant kangaroos University of Melbourne August 16, 2006 Scientists at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University have found strong evidence for the cause of the extinction of Australia’s giant marsupials some 50,000 years ago. Artist’s depiction of […]
Most of world’s forests could be gone by 2100

New research claims that more than half the world’s largest forests will be lost if global temperatures rise by an average of 3 degrees or more by the end of the century. The Amazon rainforest. The study, published in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that a warmer climate also increases […]
Global Warming Threatens Pollination Timing

Global Warming Threatens Pollination Timing Global Warming Threatens Pollination Timing Earthwatch Institute August 9, 2006 In addition to the more obvious effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and increasing storm activity, there is the potential to dramatically alter ecological communities. Dr. David Inouye, director of University of Maryland’s graduate program in Sustainable […]
Global Warming Threatens Australia’s Tropical Biodiversity

Global Warming Threatens Australia’s Tropical Biodiversity Global Warming Threatens Australia’s Tropical Biodiversity Earthwatch Institute July 25, 2006 Global climate change will pose serious challenges for wildlife populations around the world in the coming decades. The findings of Dr. Stephen Williams (Centre for Tropical Biodiversity & Climate Change, James Cook University) suggest that endemic wildlife populations […]
1250 bird species may be extinct by 2100

1250 bird species may be extinct by 2100 1250 bird species may be extinct by 2100 mongabay.com July 4, 2006 Two new studies paint a mixed future for the world’s bird populations, one suggesting that 12 percent of existing species could be extinct by 2100 and the other finding shifts in migration patterns among birds […]
16,119 species at risk of extinction

16,119 species at risk of extinction 16,119 species at risk of extinction mongabay.com May 2, 2006 The total number of known threatened species stands at 16,119 according to the World Conservation Union’s latest Red List, a tally of threatened and endangered species. The Geneva-based conservation group, known by its acronym IUCN, says that 784 species […]
Climate change is serious threat to biodiversity

Climate change is serious threat to biodiversity Climate change is serious threat to biodiversity Conservation International April 11, 2006 The Earth could see massive waves of species extinctions around the world if global warming continues unabated, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Conservation Biology. Given its potential to damage areas far […]
Climate change threatens coldwater reefs

Climate change threatens coldwater reefs Climate change threatens coldwater reefs Ecological Society of America April 3, 2006 Corals don’t only occur in warm, sun-drenched, tropical seas; some species are found at depths of three miles or more in cold, dark waters throughout the world’s oceans. Some cold-water coral reefs are home to more than 1,300 […]
Does tropical biodiversity increase during global warming?

Does tropical biodiversity increase during global warming?
Past mass extinction events linked to climate change

Past mass extinction events linked to climate change Past mass extinction events linked to climate change Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com March 29, 2006 Most mass extinctions were caused by gradual climate change rather than catastrophic asteroid impacts says Peter Ward, a paleontologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, in an upcoming article in New […]
Global biological diversity in decline

Global biological diversity in decline Global biological diversity in decline Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com March 20, 2006 Global biological diversity is increasingly threatened according to a report released by at the outset of the largest biodiversity conference in more than a decade. More than 3000 delegates and 100 government ministers have gathered in Curitiba, Brazil […]
New extinction hotspots identified

Future biodiversity extinction hotspots identified Future biodiversity extinction hotspots identified Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com March 7, 2006 Scientists have identified 20 potential extinction hotspots where hunting and human-caused habitat destruction are set to suffer significant declines in animal populations in coming years. In developing their map of future extinction hotspots, the researchers analyzed current and […]
Climate change is killing frogs finds new research

Climate change is killing frogs finds new research Climate change is killing frogs finds new research Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com January 11, 2006 Panama golden frog The dramatic global decline of amphibians may be directly connected to global warming warns a new study published in the journal Nature. Looking at a group of frogs found […]
Extinctions linked to climate change

Extinctions linked to climate change Extinctions linked to climate change Oregon State University release January 11, 2006 A new report that links global warming to the recent extinction of dozens of amphibian species in tropical America is more evidence of a large phenomena that may affect broad regions, many animal species and ultimately humans, according […]
Is Global Warming Killing Polar Bears? — WSJ

Is Global Warming Killing Polar Bears? — WSJ Is Global Warming Killing Polar Bears? — WSJ Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com December 14, 2005 Today The Wall Street Journal ran an article asking “Is Global Warming Killing the Polar Bears?” The article cited several recent studies that suggest polar bears are increasingly under threat from receding […]
Coral reefs decimated by 2050, Great Barrier Reef’s coral 95% dead

Coral reefs decimated by 2050, Great Barrier Reef’s coral 95% dead Coral reefs decimated by 2050, Great Barrier Reef’s coral 95% dead Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com November 17, 2005 Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could lose 95 percent of its living coral by 2050 should ocean temperatures increase by the 1.5 degrees Celsius projected by climate […]
Global warming may have triggered worst mass extinction

Global warming may have triggered worst mass extinction Global warming may have triggered worst mass extinction mongabay.com, National Center for Atmospheric Research release August 29, 2005 SUMMARY: A dramatic rise in carbon dioxide 250 million years ago may have caused global temperatures to soar and result in Earth’s greatest mass extinction, according to a study […]

Feeds: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia