Climate change and wildlife conservation

Marine life at the Watamu Marine National Park offshore Mwamba

Many coral reefs and the fantastic variety of marine life which they support are threatened by rising sea temperatures. These corals and fishes inhabit the Watamu Marine National Park offshore from the A Rocha Kenya centre.

In the past, the Earth’s climate has varied naturally, over immense periods of time. However, it is well known that recent human activities, such as the burning of oil, coal and gas, are having an unprecedented impact on our climate by increasing the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This has started to put the climate system out of balance. Scientists report that, even with urgent action to tackle climate change, an average global temperature rise of up to 2°C is unavoidable. Apart from changes in temperature and rainfall, more extreme weather events are expected, such as the scorching summer of 2003 when high temperatures across Europe caused 27,000 deaths. Indeed, these are unprecedented times and it is not entirely clear what will happen. But how will climate change affect wildlife and our current conservation efforts?

According to Conservation International, and IUCN, climate change is among the greatest threats to biodiversity today. They point out that deforestation and land-use changes such as slash-and-burn farming, soil degradation and loss, road building, and urban sprawl account for as much as 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. We can see the effects of climate change already when we look at the breeding behaviour of many species of birds. For example, in the northern hemisphere, the egg-laying dates of a number of species have advanced since the 1970s, the time summer migrants arrive has become earlier and short-distance migrants may be delaying their departure to wintering grounds. For some species, migration patterns are changing as well as timing. An increasing number of short-distance migrants from European breeding populations, such as Blackcaps, are now spending the winter in the UK rather than moving to their more traditional wintering grounds in the Mediterranean Basin. Worryingly, some birds, such as Ring Ouzels, are in serious decline and it is thought that climate change may be affecting their food supplies. Some birds time their breeding so that nestlings hatch when food is most abundant. With advancing egg-laying dates, it is feared that hatching will no longer coincide with the necessary glut of caterpillars or other prey. Recent research on butterflies and frogs shows that dramatic population declines and species extinctions are already occurring and that things are going to get a lot worse.

Marine life at the Watamu Marine National Park.

There is a lot of debate amongst scientists who are trying to predict the consequences of climate change on wildlife. As the Earth’s temperature rises, some wildlife is expected to move to more suitable habitat, for example northward or perhaps to higher elevations. Some animals, however, cannot move. Coral reef species and many amphibians, for example, are not suited to new habitats, and many more are simply running out of room to live. Meanwhile, glaciers are melting, ocean chemistry is changing, and entire populations of species are disappearing. If left unchecked, many believe that climate change could prompt the extinction of tens of thousands of species in the next 50 years, strengthening the idea that the natural world is experiencing the ‘sixth major extinction’ event in its history.

Habitat loss and climate change is a disastrous cocktail for wildlife. The need for nature conservation and changes to the way we live has never been greater.

Darren Evans

Darren serves as a Scientific Advisor to A Rocha International. He is a Research Associate in Ornithology at the University of Bristol, UK, and studies the interactions of birds with the natural environment. He is currently working on a project looking at bird food-webs and extinction risks to wildlife on farmland.