Moose Populations Dropping As Minnesota's Climate Rapidly Warms - USA Today

[hatrack]

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Scientists who study the environment here, though, say disappearing moose and other changes are tangible evidence of global warming, making the region a research incubator that could improve understanding of the effects of climate change. "Temperatures are increasing … more in the center of North America than on the edges, so it turns out that we are sitting in a sort of hot spot," says Lucinda Johnson, at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) in Duluth.

State climatologist Jim Zandlo says the rate of temperature increases rose dramatically in the past 20 to 30 years. The "rate of change over a century may be … a total of 10 degrees," he says.

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Mark Lenarz, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wildlife research biologist, has been researching moose for more than two decades. He monitors a northeastern Minnesota herd with an average mortality rate twice as high as in Alaska and Canada.

Because moose increase their metabolisms to stay cool when winter temperatures exceed 23 degrees and when summer temperatures top 57 degrees, warmer weather is causing stress that makes them more susceptible to parasites, Lenarz says. Brainworm, a parasite, is spread by deer. Fewer deer die in warm winters, so there are more of them to spread brainworm. "This is not just a cycle," he says. Lenarz wishes there were more he could do. "I really feel powerless," he says.

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http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080421/a_climatechange21.art.htm

[HereSince1628]

1. I suspect my former parasit students will be saying "Yeah, Dr. XXXXXX told me

that was a possibile effect from climate change about that 10 years ago.