Effects of global warming already being felt on plants and animals...( ical change from Alaska and other north...)

Proactive response

The authors pointed out that, although plants and animals have responded to climatic changes throughout their evolutionary history, a primary concern for wild species and their ecosystems is the rapid rate of change predicted during the next century.

"The problem will be the differential response of species," Root explained. "I call it the tearing apart of communities. For example, four types of warblers feed on spruce budworm caterpillars. But the birds are shifting north. What happens when the birds no longer are present in the southern portion of their ranges, and the caterpillar population is no longer kept in check?"

She predicted that rapid climate change, coupled with the loss of habitat and other ecological stressors, could lead to the disappearance of species - a consequence that might be avoided by taking proactive instead of reactive conservation measures.

"For example, there's a very high probability that global warming could contribute to a 50 percent decline in breeding waterfowl populations," Root noted. "One thing we might do now is to consider adjusting the bag limits for hunters so we don't add insult to injury in the coming years. Because anticipation of changes improves our capacity to manage, it behooves us to increase our understanding about the responses of plants and animals to a changing climate."

Other co-authors of the Nature study are Jeff T. Price of the American Bird Conservancy in Colorado; Kimberly R. Hall of Michigan State University; Stephen H. Schneider, a professor of biological sciences at Stanford and an IIS senior fellow; Cynthia Rosenzweig of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; and Alan Pounds of the Golden Toad Laboratory for Conservation in Coast Rica. The study was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Winslow Foundation and the University of Michigan.
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Contact: Klas Bergman
kbergman@stanford.edu
650-723-8490
Stanford University
1-Jan-2003