Climate Change Impacts on Threatened and Endangered Wildlife is Massively Underreported, Scientists

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https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/9848/Climate-Change-Impacts-on-Threatened-and-Endangered-Wildlife-is-Massively-Underreported-Scientists-Say.aspx

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Climate Change Impacts on Threatened and Endangered Wildlife is Massively Underreported, Scientists Say[/font]
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• New assessment says half of mammals and nearly a quarter of birds on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species are impacted
• 700 mammals and birds impacted
• New paper appears in Nature Climate Change
• Additional Images can be downloaded here
• Download the study: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE3223[/font]
  
  February 13, 2017
  
  [font size=3]NEW YORK (February 13, 2017) – A team of scientists reporting in the journal Nature Climate Change say that negative impacts of climate change on threatened and endangered wildlife have been massively underreported.
  
  In a new analysis, authors found that nearly half of the mammals and nearly a quarter of the birds on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species are negatively impacted by climate change, with nearly 700 species affected. Previous assessments said only seven percent of mammals and four percent of birds on the Red List were impacted.
  
  The paper reviewed 130 studies, making it the most comprehensive assessment to date on how climate change is affecting our most well-studied species.
  
  Impacts for mammals are wide ranging and include a lower ability to exploit resources and adapt to new environmental conditions. For example, primates and marsupials, many of which have evolved in stable tropical areas, are vulnerable to rapid changes and extreme events brought on by climate change. In addition, primates and elephants, which are characterized by very slow reproductive rates that reduce their ability to adapt to rapid changes in environmental conditions, are also vulnerable. On the other hand, rodent species that can burrow, and thus avoid some extreme conditions, will be less vulnerable.
  
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