For every one-degree-Celsius increase in temperature, mountaintop species shift upslope 100 metres, shrinking their inhabited area and resulting in dramatic population declines, new research by University of British Columbia zoologists has found.
For every one-degree-Celsius increase in temperature, mountaintop species shift upslope 100 metres, shrinking their inhabited area and resulting in dramatic population declines, new research by University of British Columbia zoologists has found.
The study—the first broad review of its kind—analyzed shifts in elevation range in 975 populations of plants, insects and animals.
“Most mountaintop species we looked at are responding to warming temperatures by shifting upslope to live in cooler environments. As they move towards the mountaintop, the area they live within gets smaller and smaller. This supports predictions that global warming could eventually drive extinctions among species at the top,” says Benjamin Freeman, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the UBC Biodiversity Research Centre.
Read more at University of British Columbia
Image: Mountain burnet butterflies in the French Pyrenees have lost of 79 percent of their range, according to University of British Columbia research. (Credit: Mikael Mildén)
