As G8 countries try to hatch a plan to tackle rising CO2 emissions (see 鈥淐limate wrangles鈥�), a global analysis of the effects that human activities will have on land birds is ruffling conservationists鈥� feathers.
By 2050, up to 900 species of land birds could be threatened by climate change and habitat destruction through activities such as logging. By 2100, the number of bird species on the World Conservation Union鈥檚 Red List of threatened species may more than double.
Walter Jetz from the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues mapped the distributions of all 8750 known land bird species against habitat changes predicted in several potential environmental futures in the UN鈥檚 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (PLoS Biology, vol 5, p e157). 鈥淪pecies in temperate regions will suffer mostly from climate change,鈥� says Jetz, 鈥渂ut in the tropics, where birds are especially diverse and have small ranges, land conversion such as deforestation will have an even bigger impact.鈥�
Advertisement
鈥淭he specialists confined to small areas don鈥檛 cope well with habitat change, and this applies to many tropical bird species,鈥� agrees Bill Sutherland, a conservation biologist from the University of Cambridge.
By identifying fragile regions, Jetz hopes his work will help policy-makers become more proactive, with improved targeting of conservation efforts. 鈥淧rotecting tropical forests is also a strong buffer against future climate change,鈥� he says.
