A novel analysis suggests more than 3,500 animal species are threatened by climate change and also sheds light on huge gaps in fully understanding the risk to the animal kingdom.
A novel analysis suggests more than 3,500 animal species are threatened by climate change and also sheds light on huge gaps in fully understanding the risk to the animal kingdom.
The study(Link is external) was published today in BioScience.
“We’re at the start of an existential crisis for the Earth’s wild animals,” said Oregon State University’s William Ripple, who led the study. “Up till now, the primary cause of biodiversity loss has been the twin threats of overexploitation and habitat alteration, but as climate change intensifies, we expect it to become a third major threat to the Earth’s animals.”
Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the OSU College of Forestry, and collaborators in the U.S. and Mexico used publicly available biodiversity datasets to examine animal data for 70,814 species from 35 existing classes. They categorized the species by class and climate change risks as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Read More: Oregon State University
Hawai'ian green sea turtle. (Photo Credit: David Baker)
