Shifting Habitat Due to Climate Change

January 22, 2008

Birds are laying eggs on the average of at least 5 to 10 days earlier than normal, scientists have observed; reports from botanical gardens around the world are noting that many flowering plants are blooming weeks ahead of schedule; and animals that hibernate, such as grizzlies and yellow-bellied marmots, are waking from their winter slumber much earlier than before.Biologist Camille Parmesan’s study on the North American Edith Checkerspot Butterfly was the first to show a species changing its range due to higher atmospheric temperatures. During this study, she discovered that two thirds of all butterfly species in the European continent have already shifted their habitat by an average of 22 to 150 miles. The Pew Center on Global Climate Study reported that field studies show that pikas, rufous hummingbirds, starfish, red foxes and many other species across the zoological spectrum are doing the same in North America. Scientists are estimating that half the species on Earth are having poleward shifts or other responses to global warming.The impacts of climate change and resulting shifts in rainfall, temperatures, sea levels, ecosystem composition and food availability, biologists say, will have significant effects on the survival of thousands of species.As the planet warms, many species will be able to shift their range or change behaviors in response to the change. But some will have no place to go; they will have run out of forests, tundra, wetlands or polar ice caps because potentially suitable habitat has been destroyed. If animals remain trapped in their habitats, one quarter of the Earth’s plants and animals could disappear by the end of this century.We’ve protected biodiversity in the past by drawing lines around some of our most wild and ecologically important places and designating them for protection. This strategy assumes that these environments are stable and that as long as we try to manage their integrity by not building new roads, logging or altering them in any way, the plants and animals that live there will be safe. But this no longer holds true for many places. From polar bears to butterflies, significant range shifts attributed to climate change are already being measured, including those within the boundaries of protected areas. As the environmental conditions for a given species or ecosystem shift outside the boundaries of protected areas, climate change threatens over 100 years of investment in North American biodiversity conservation.Although corridors have been promoted for several decades in response to habitat destruction and fragmentation, this concept is gaining increasing importance as our planet warms and ecosystems change. Designing corridors that unite key areas may be our best insurance policy against future extinctions.

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