Global Warming Causes Species Shift

U.S. scientists say as global warming increases, many plants and animals will begin migrating northward to locations with more suitable temperatures.

University of California-Davis ecologist Mark Schwartz notes 2006 was the hottest year on record in the United States and the hottest in Britain since 1659.

Global warming is predicted to threaten a large number of our plants and animals with extinction, said Schwartz, a professor and director of the university’s Center for Population Biology. “One obvious solution is to help species at risk move to new environments where they may thrive.

However, he added, our experience with costly unintended consequences of biological invasions should give us pause before embarking on such a mission.

One example of an animal shifting its habitat because of climate change is the Edith’s checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha wrighti). Found in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, the butterfly during the past 25 years has moved from lower to higher elevations, and from southern locations to northern ones.

Schwartz and colleagues at the University of Notre Dame have written the first major scientific paper on the subject. It is scheduled for publication in the journal Conservation Biology.