Featured article: Climate Change Effects on Wildlife
Climate change affects both terrestrial and aquatic biomes causing significant effects on ecosystem functions and biodiversity. Climate change is affecting several key ecological processes and patterns that will have cascading impacts on wildlife and habitat. For example, sea-level rise, changes in the timing and duration of growing seasons, and changes in primary production are mainly driven by changes to global environmental variables (e.g., temperature and atmospheric CO2
). Wildlife species are adapted to their environments and changes to the environment and habitat conditions will mediate effects, either directly or indirectly, on species survival, fecundity and ultimately population persistence. The ability to adapt to changing habitat conditions as a result of climate change will differ across individual species and between populations. Climate change effects on wildlife include increases in disease and changes to pathogen distributions, patterns, and outbreaks in wildlife; changes in range distributions and shifts in latitudinal and elevational gradients; changes in phenology or the timing of life cycle events that may create phenological mismatches; and extinction or population reduction. The effects of climate change across a species’ range will most likely not be homogenous, meaning it can vary substantially, especially if a species’ range spans across different continents as exhibited by many migratory birds.