A new study led by an ecology and evolutionary biologist at UC Santa Cruz finds that temperature changes due to climate change have a doubly detrimental impact: Not only do they destabilize animal populations, but the impacts accelerate as temperatures change more rapidly.
A new study led by an ecology and evolutionary biologist at UC Santa Cruz finds that temperature changes due to climate change have a doubly detrimental impact: Not only do they destabilize animal populations, but the impacts accelerate as temperatures change more rapidly.
In the study, published on January 29 in Nature, the international team of researchers found that changing temperatures—either warming or cooling—drive changes in the composition of species in an ecosystem. The results also suggest that behavioral adaptation and changing species interactions are not enough to preserve species composition in the face of higher rates of temperature fluctuations.
“It's like shuffling a deck of cards, and temperature change now is shuffling that deck faster and faster,” said lead author Malin Pinsky, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz. “The worry is that eventually you start to lose some cards.”
Read More: University of California - Santa Cruz
An intertidal species assemblage in Davenport Landing, California, USA. Species are being rapidly replaced in assemblages like this as temperatures change around the world. (Photo Credit: Michael Kowalski)
