Extinction risk from climate change

Publication

Climate change over the past approximately 30 years has produced numerous shifts in the distributions and abundances of species and has been implicated in one species-level extinction.

Using projections of species' distributions for future climate scenarios, we assess extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface. Exploring three approaches in which the estimated probability of extinction shows a power-law relationship with geographical range size, we predict, on the basis of mid-range climate-warming scenarios for 2050, that 15-37% of species in our sample of regions and taxa will be 'committed to extinction'. When the average of the three methods and two dispersal scenarios is taken, minimal climate-warming scenarios produce lower projections of species committed to extinction ( approximately 18%) than mid-range ( approximately 24%) and maximum-change ( approximately 35%) scenarios. These estimates show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.

Authors

Thomas CD , Cameron A , Green RE , Bakkenes M , Beaumont LJ , Collingham YC , Erasmus BFH , Ferreira de Siquera M , Grainger A , Hannah L , Hughes L , Huntley B , Jaarsveld AS van , Midgley GF , Miles L , Ortega-Huerta MA , Townsend Peterson A , Phillips OL , Williams SE

Specifications

Publication title
Extinction risk from climate change
Publication date
4 March 2004
Publication type
Publication
Magazine
Nature 2004; 427:145-8
Product number
91192