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Fingerprints of global warming on wild animals and plants
Root, TL | Price, JT | Hall, KR | Schneider, SH | Rosenzweig, C | Pounds, JA
Nature [Nature]. Vol. 421, no. 6918, pp. 57-60. 2 Jan 2003.
Over the past 100 years, the global average temperature has
increased by approximately 0.6 degree C and is projected to
continue to rise at a rapid rate. Although species have responded
to climatic changes throughout their evolutionary history, a
primary concern for wild species and their ecosystems is this
rapid rate of change. We gathered information on species and
global warming from 143 studies for our meta-analyses. These
analyses reveal a consistent temperature-related shift, or
'fingerprint', in species ranging from molluscs to mammals and
from grasses to trees. Indeed, more than 80% of the species that
show changes are shifting in the direction expected on the basis
of known physiological constraints of species. Consequently, the
balance of evidence from these studies strongly suggests that a
significant impact of global warming is already discernible in
animal and plant populations. The synergism of rapid temperature
rise and other stresses, in particular habitat destruction, could
easily disrupt the connectedness among species and lead to a
reformulation of species communities, reflecting differential
changes in species, and to numerous extirpations and possibly
extinctions.
 Descriptors: Article Subject Terms Biogeography | Climatic changes | Ecophysiology | Ecosystem analysis | Ecosystems | Environmental impact | Extinction | Global warming | Species extinction | Temperature | Temperature
effects | Article Taxonomic Terms Animalia | Plantae
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