Species of plants, mammals, birds and bugs have been found relocating rapidly towards the poles, in search for cooler habitats as the globe warms. This is a straightforward “readjustment” response of the world’s wildlife to rising temperatures and other local climate changes; and is taking place faster than previously believed.
According to a study at University of York, wild species have moved 17.6 kilometres per decade, on average. They also noti-ced smaller species moving to higher elevations at 12.2 metres per decade.
“These changes are equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the equator at around 20 cm per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year. This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of this century,” says Chris Thomas, project leader at York.
Scientists involved are positive that this is global warming’s doing. They support their claims by reporting a direct relationship between the extent of relocation and degree of climate change.
“We have for the first time shown that the amount by which the distributions of species have changed is correlated with the amount the climate has changed in that region,” says I-Ching Chen, first author of the study to be published in Science. Their results are based on meta-analysis of all available records of species distribution included in research literature. “It’s a summary of the state of world knowledge about how the ranges of species are responding to climate change. Our analysis shows that rates of response to climate change are two or three times faster than previously realised,” they say.