Keeping up with climate change: animals are falling behind
30th July 2019
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Animals’ adaptations in response to climate change are “most likely insufficient”, according to new research published in the journal Nature Communications.

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As stated by the University of Leeds, it is of vital importance to assess whether animals can respond to changing environmental conditions. For example, do animals shift the time of breeding, and does this shift have a positive impact on a species’ long-term survival? The paper’s research reviewed over 10,000 studies to assess whether animals are adapting to the changing environment. It found that while species do seem able to adapt to climate change, the rate at which temperatures are rising is too fast for them to keep up. For example, though some of the bird species being studied were adapting to the climate, they were not doing so at a pace guaranteeing their survival. Such birds included the great tit and the magpie, which are known to cope with climate change relatively well. This is particularly worrying considering how common and abundant they are.

Image Credit: Ross via Wikimedia Commons
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