What animals are being threatened by climate change?

What animals are being threatened by climate change?
05-06-2008

I want to be able to put together a list of animals threated by climate change. I was hoping you all can help.

Thanks.

05-06-2008

The forum should be threatened, not threated

Climate change threats to species
05-06-2008

My guess would have to be polar bears if the ice caps melt , and then several of the animals down the food chain .....

05-06-2008

In a very roundabout way its true to say all life on earth is threatened by climate change. I suppose in this instance you are asking about animals that are more immediately at risk- and still the list is very long.

Not so long ago I had to write a short essay on this topic for my tutorial component at uni. It's not great (it wasn't very important) but its got a fair few examples in, and its referenced, which should give some starting point. It's on my other computer, but I'll post it later today hopefully. I hope that it'll be of some use to you.

__________________
Chris

05-06-2008

It depends on how specialised or rather "flexible" a species is in terms of adaption. In my opinion, the Polar Bear is probably not going to follow the current doomsaying predicted by IUCN & mass media, as it has proven to be quite an adaptive species in its vast distribution, wheras some of the Arctic seal species might have more problems coping with changes.

05-06-2008

I agree with you sun wukong. look at the animals that have adaopted to live with man made changes to the environment. kangaroos are a classic example. there probably would be more living in australia now then before europeans arrived and changed the land scape to suit their farm animals.

05-06-2008

I've found the essay I wrote but the attachment won't fit.
I've taken the list of references for you to look at however, hopefully that will prove useful.

Reference:

[1] Derocher, A., Lunn, N., Stirling, I. ‘Polar Bears in a Warming Climate’ 2004, accessed on the World Wide Web at: Polar Bears in a Warming Climate -- Derocher et al. 44 (2): 163 -- Integrative and Comparative Biology

[2] Evans, M., ‘Socotra Island xeric shrubs’, Accessed on the World Wide Web at:
Terrestrial Ecoregions -- Socotra Island xeric shrublands (AT1318)

[3] Taken from the 2007 IUCN Redlist. Accessed on the World Wide Web at:
2007 IUCN Red List – 2004 Photo Gallery

[4] Woods, V., ‘Coral bleaching – will global warming kill the reefs?’ 2002. Published by Australian Academy of Science and Accessed on the World Wide Web at: Coral bleaching-Key text

[5] ‘Extinction of Harlequin Frogs’ from Global Warming, Climate Change, Greenhouse Effect accessed on the worldwide web at: Extinction of Harlequin Frogs

[6] Handwerk, B., ‘Frog Extinctions Linked to Global Warming’2006. Published by National Geographic and Accessed on the World Wide Web at: Frog Extinctions Linked to Global Warming

[7] ‘Climate Change and Sea Turtles’ from Global Warming, Climate Change, Greenhouse Effect accessed on the World Wide Web at: Climate Change and Sea Turtles

[8] Science Daily ‘Biologists Raising Baby Turtles for Consevration Find Disturbing Gender Trend’2002. Accessed on the World Wide Web at: Biologists Raising Baby Loggerhead Turtles For Conservation Find Disturbing Gender Trend

I did mention polar bears in my essay. Below is the extract. As Sun Wukong has implied a large part of the struggle with polar bears is linked to the ill-fate of their seal prey. As to whether the polar bears will pull through thanks to their adaptability remains to be fully seen.

“The plight of iconic, flagship species such as polar bears and emperor penguins has helped increase awareness of such concerns. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are a particularly good example of how Arctic animals are threatened by climatic change. Warmer temperatures have resulted in shorter winters, and the break up of winter sea-ice begins earlier each season. The bears’ main prey, ringed and bearded seals, breed on this sea-ice, and its unavailability will reduce the seals chances of raising offspring. Moreover, the bears require this ice on which to hunt (bears are unable to hunt in open water) and so in areas where sea-ice remains, bear density will increase. This will create further problems for the already struggling prey species. [1]”

__________________
Chris

06-06-2008

The thread "Polar Bear Exhibits" discusses at least 10 or more zoos just in North America that already have, or are planning to, construct new polar bear enclosures. Without a doubt that animal has become a flagship species for the environment.

06-06-2008

@^Chris^ : Thanks for posting the links. The very first article, however, also mentions the possibility of polar bears adopting to other sources of food, like beluga whales etc. I would add the cleary non-"PC", but nevertheless realistic aspect of human waste as a source of food. Clearly not a great thing, but one criterion to think about.

However, I have the uneasy feeling that the current big fuss about climate change is going to be directed by the media to another, even "sexier" environmental problem-like it was the case before with Rainforest Deforestation, the Ozone Hole, Whale-Hunting,Tiger-Poaching, forest diebacks and so on and on. And while these problems still exist, the public attention and interest is shifted to another subject, neglecting the others...

06-06-2008

talking of Polar Bears, which are currently very much in the limelight. It wasn't that long ago-zoologically speaking- that they evolved from Brown Bears, so maybe they still possess the ability to turn to a more omnivorous diet should the need arise. And regarding any other changes to the enviroment caused by warming, those bears that live around Churchill are already found in a tundra situation for several months of the year.

06-06-2008

The article in my first link, under the 'Availability of Prey' section mentions this in it's last paragraph eg: "Polar bears will use terrestrial resources such as blueberries (Vaccinium uliginosum) (Derocher et al., 1993), snow geese (Anser caerulescens) (Russell, 1975), and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) (Derocher et al., 2000) but the frequency of occurrence recorded to date indicate that these are relatively unimportant energy sources compared to seals. "

SpringerLink - Journal Article
This article (though I can only get the summary without paying) seems to suggest that even when bears have access to terrestrial food sources they don't always use it, which may suggest they may struggle to adapt at first.
Most polar bears will fast instead, living of fat reserves during the summer, when hunting on the ice is impossible.

Some people believe that the polar bear would be unable to obtain the required calories living off a purely terrestrial diet. It requires the energy rich blubber of marine mammals, of which there is no terrestrial substitute. Apparently this is mentioned in the Oecologia paper, but again, I only have the summary.

__________________
Chris

07-06-2008

species threatened by climate change.....hmmm
the more specific the environment the greater the impact of climate change. I think its pretty obvious that species from temperate eco-systems will suffer directly and soon.
so animals from polar and montane environments. amphibians as a whole group. species from islands are under threat from rising sea-levels. plant species could face wholescale die-backs.
ultimately I would predict all species including humans will be impacted upon with more specialised species ending up as losers and adaptable species changing their behaviours and ending up as winners. migratory bird species are widely anticipated to expand and adapt their ranges, whilst sedentary species may become the subject of trans-border human intervention, ie relocation.
to cope with climate change all species need to have the ability to adapt. for this reason large tracts of unbroken habitat such as the network of national parks up Australia's east-coast are needed so species can move their range.
Restoring species to parts of their former range such as how Britain is 're-wilding' its landscape with beaver, wolf and lynx proposed for reintroduction are similarly important steps.

20-09-2008

Whether it is climate change I don't know but particularly the last year and a half there has been a problem with bees vanishing or dying here in Canada. Some of the bee keepers here bought their bees this year from Australia as the we none available here. A friend in the UK told they were having trouble getting bees at the beginning of the season. Has this happened in your part of the world.
It certainly is a frightening thought that bees might vanish it would affect our whole way of life. Until now I hadn't really realized how much our food depends on the bee but we would have no fruit as we know it. Hopefully this was a better summer for the Bee Keepers.

20-09-2008

Wow, you guys are losing bees! I think they are all migrating to Los Angeles because we have too many. There has been days at the Los angeles zoo where there is too many bees around the zoo. The zoo even has had a sign on the entrance warninig people on the high numbers of bees. The zoo even has put bee traps all over the zoo to try to help the cituation. You guys should get them from LA instead of Australia.

21-09-2008

Polar bear is not under danger of full extinction. Best models of climate change predict decrease of polar bears by one third until 2050.

Is it much? Numerically enough to classify them as Vulnerable. But best estimates of polar bear numbers from 1970's suggest polar bears were 4 times less numerous then than today, increase attributed to end of hunting and organochloride pollution.

I find it hard to find a four-limbed animal under threat of full extinction due to climate change as realistically predicted today. Maybe Wrangel Island lemming and a handful of high Arctic birds, like sanderling. Islands under threat of submerging undersea? These coral atolls usualy lack endemic animals. Perhaps most likely is extiction of some species in tropical mountains, like some frogs, Ethiopian wolf and Snow Mountain robin.

Remember that many species will increase in warmer climate. This will be especialy visible in Europe and North America, where lots of warm-loving animals from the meds and U.S. South move north. Western Europeans already have breeding bee-eaters and little egrets, once confined to the Meds.

Very important in protection of corridors for wildlife to move north. In many cases these corridors were irreversibly lost to development, and then manualy moving species (seeds, soil, water etc) will be needed.