Most researchers agree
that even small changes in temperature are enough to send hundreds if not
thousands of already struggling species into extinction unless we can stem the
tide of global warming. And time may be of the essence: A 2003 study published
in the journal Nature concluded that 80 percent of some 1,500 wildlife species
sampled are already showing signs of stress from climate change.
How Global Warming Affects
Wildlife
The key impact of global warming on wildlife is habitat displacement, whereby
ecosystems that animals have spent millions of years adapting to shift quickly.
Ice giving way to water in polar bear habitat is just one example of this.
Another, according to The Washington Post, is the possibility
that warmer spring temperatures could dry up critical breeding habitat for
waterfowl in the prairie pothole region, a stretch of land between northern
Iowa and central Alberta.
Affected
wildlife populations can sometimes move into new spaces and continue to thrive.
But concurrent human population growth means that many land areas that might be
suitable for such “refugee wildlife” are already taken and cluttered with
residential and industrial development.
Shifting Life Cycles and
Global Warming
Beyond habitat displacement, many scientists agree that global warming is
causing a shift in the timing of various natural cyclical events in the lives
of animals. Many birds have altered the timing of long-held migratory and
reproductive routines to better sync up with a warming climate. And some
hibernating animals are ending their slumbers earlier each year, perhaps due to
warmer spring temperatures.
To make matters worse, recent
research contradicts the long-held hypothesis that different species coexisting
in a particular ecosystem respond to global warming as a single entity.
Instead, different species sharing like habitat are responding in dissimilar
ways, tearing apart ecological communities millennia in the making.
Global Warming Effects on
Animals Affect People Too
As wildlife species go their separate
ways, humans can also feel the impact. A World Wildlife Fund study found that a
northern exodus from the United States to Canada by some types of warblers led
to a spread of mountain pine beetles that destroy economically productive
balsam fir trees. Similarly, a northward migration of caterpillars in the
Netherlands has eroded some forests there.
Which
Animals Are Hardest Hit by Global Warming?
According to Defenders of Wildlife,
some of the wildlife species hardest hit so far by global warming include
caribou (reindeer), arctic foxes, toads, polar bears, penguins, gray wolves,
tree swallows, painted turtles and salmon. The group fears that unless we take
decisive steps to reverse global warming, more and more species will join the
list of wildlife populations pushed to the brink of extinction by a changing
climate.
By
Asha
7th semester (I.T.)
V.V.P. ENGINEERING COLLEGE
