Global warming could cause mass extinctions

Massive waves of species extinctions could happen around the world if global warming continues unabated, a new study suggests.

Given the potential to damage areas far away from human habitation, global warming represents one of the most pervasive threats to our planet's biodiversity.

In some areas, it rivals and even surpasses deforestation as the main threat to living organisms.

The study expands on a much-debated 2004 paper published in the journal Nature that suggested a quarter of the world's species would be committed to extinction by 2050 as a result of global warming.

The results reinforce the massive species extinction risk identified in the 2004 study while increasing the global scope of the research to include diverse hotspots around the world.

"Climate change is rapidly becoming the most serious threats to the planet's biodiversity," said lead author Dr Jay Malcolm, an assistant forestry professor at the University of Toronto.

"This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet."

Using vegetation models, the research assessed the potential effects of climate change on terrestrial biodiversity on a global scale rather than just looking at individual species.

Scientists looked specifically at the effect that climate change would have on 25 of the 34 globally outstanding "biodiversity hotspots" – areas containing a large number of species unique to these regions alone, yet facing enormous threats.

"It isn't just polar bears and penguins that we must worry about anymore," said Lee Hannah, co-author of the study and senior fellow for climate change at Conservation International.

"The hotspots studied in this paper are essentially refugee camps for many of our planet's most unique plant and animal species.

"If those areas are no longer habitable due to global warming then we will quite literally be destroying the last sanctuaries many of these species have left."

These biodiversity hotspots make up about one per cent of the Earth's surface but contain 44 per cent of all terrestrial vertebrate species and 35 per cent of the world's plant species.

Areas particularly vulnerable to climate change include the tropical Andes, the Cape Floristic region of South Africa, Southwest Australia, and the Atlantic forests of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.

They are particularly vulnerable because the species in these regions have restricted migration options due to geographical limitations.

The research was published in the journal Conservation Biology.

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