1 May 2015, The Conversation: One in six species faces extinction as a result of climate change.The Earth is on course to lose up to one in six of all its species, if carbon emissions continue as they currently are. This global extinction risk masks very large regional variations. Up to a quarter of South American species may be doomed. These are some of the findings of a comprehensive piece of new research conducted by evolutionary ecologist Mark Urban and published in Science. Read More here
Category Archives: Ecosystem Stress
29 April 2015 Climate News Network: High anxiety that mountain peaks are warming faster. Scientists call for international efforts to determine why temperatures on high-altitude mountains appear to be rising faster than in nearby lowlands. Temperatures could be climbing on mountains − with new research suggesting that the highest altitudes may be warming at a rate greater than expected.Members of the Mountain Research Initiative collective report in Nature Climate Change that they found evidence that mountain peak regions were warming faster than the surrounding plateaus and lowlands.The study − by Nick Pepin, leader of the Environmental Processes and Change Research Group at Portsmouth University in the UK, and colleagues from the US, Switzerland, Canada, Ecuador, Pakistan, China, Italy, Austria and Kazakhstan − comes with more than the usual set of health warnings. Read More here
2 April 2015 World Resource Institute: Tree Cover Loss Spikes in Russia and Canada, Remains High Globally. “New, high-resolution satellite-based maps released today by the University of Maryland and Google on Global Forest Watch, a partnership of over 60 organizations convened by the World Resources Institute, reveal a significant recent surge in tree cover loss largely in Russia and Canada during 2013…” Read More here
31 March 2015 Despite deforestation, the Earth is getting greener. “Analysis of 20 years of satellite data has revealed the total amount of vegetation above ground globally has increased by almost the equivalent of 4 billion tonnes of carbon between 2003 and 2012. This is despite ongoing large-scale deforestation in the tropics. An Australian-led international team of scientists published the findings in Nature Climate Change, finding a range of causes for the increase. The increase in vegetation primarily came from a lucky combination of environmental and economic factors and massive tree-planting projects in China,” said Dr Yi Liu a lead author and remote sensing scientist from the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.” Read More here