Global News - May 2008

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Animals from tropical regions 'will be most affected by climate change'

Wed 07 May 2008 14:00 UK — Africa,Other

A new report has warned that species living in tropical regions of the planet are likely to suffer the most serious threats from climate change.

Researchers from UCLA and the University of Washington published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They explained that the planet's biodiversity was concentrated in tropical climates and that this means that more species from these areas are likely to suffer as a result of climate change.

"In the tropics, most of the organisms we have studied, from insects to amphibians and reptiles, are already living at their optimal physiological temperatures," co-author Curtis Deutsch added.

"When warming starts, they do less well as they move toward the hottest end of their comfort range. Even a modest increase in temperature appears rather large to them and negatively impacts their population growth rates."

The report said that animals are adaptable and that climate change could force many creatures to "migrate toward the poles or toward higher elevations".

However, Mr Deutsch stressed: "Our results imply that in the absence of any adaptation or migration by these populations in the tropics, they will experience large declines in their population growth rate. This could lead to a fairly rapid population collapse."

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