Climate Change Not the Only Threat to Vulnerable Species

Though climate change is becoming one of the greatest threats to the Earth’s already stressed ecosystems, it may not be the most severe threat today for all species, say authors of a new report on the effects of deforestation on two lemur species in Madagascar.

Writing in the current issue of Nature Climate Change, Toni Lyn Morelli at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center at University of Massachusetts Amherst and her international team of co-authors point out that species across the globe now face concurrent pressures on many fronts. These include habitat degradation and fragmentation, overharvesting, overhunting, invasive species and pollution in addition to climate change – though the latter receives special attention because of its “global reach, ability to reshape entire ecosystems and potential to impact areas that are otherwise ‘protected.’”

To understand these threats, they modeled the effects of deforestation and climate change on the two critically endangered ruffed lemur species in the genus Varecia over the next century. “Because of their essential role as some of Madagascar’s last large-bodied seed dispersers and their sensitivity to habitat loss, ruffed lemurs serve as critical indicators of rainforest health,” says co-author Andrea Baden of Hunter College CUNY, New York. “Ruffed lemurs and rainforests rely on each other. Remove one and the system collapses.”

Undertaking what Morelli calls “a massive effort,” she and her 21 colleagues combined 88 years of data to report on how deforestation will affect ruffed lemurs. Morelli, who did her doctoral work in Madagascar, says team members conducted research at thousands of sites on this island off the southeast coast of Africa with a wide range of government, foundation and academic support.

Read more at University of Massachusetts Amherst