A new study analyzing more than 5,100 plant and animal species around the globe shows that temperate, rather than tropical species, are at a higher risk of local extinction from climate change.
The study, which was published in Nature Climate Change, found that 49% of temperate species suffered from local extinction in the hottest and driest parts of their ranges. Only 33% of tropical species experienced the same fate.
To come to this conclusion, the researchers looked at biological surveys from more than 400,000 sites around the world. They studied how different species have been fairing and compared that to variables like long-term warming trends, rainfall changes, drought conditions and heat waves. They found that temperate areas are warming nearly twice as fast as tropical ones.
“For decades, scientists generally believed that temperate species were less vulnerable to climate change,” said Gopal Murali, the paper’s lead author, in an interview with the University of Arizona. “We were surprised by our results, which showed that was not the case.”
