Journal ArticleDOI
A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems
Camille Parmesan,Gary W. Yohe +1 more
TLDR
A diagnostic fingerprint of temporal and spatial ‘sign-switching’ responses uniquely predicted by twentieth century climate trends is defined and generates ‘very high confidence’ (as laid down by the IPCC) that climate change is already affecting living systems.Abstract:
Causal attribution of recent biological trends to climate change is complicated because non-climatic influences dominate local, short-term biological changes. Any underlying signal from climate change is likely to be revealed by analyses that seek systematic trends across diverse species and geographic regions; however, debates within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveal several definitions of a 'systematic trend'. Here, we explore these differences, apply diverse analyses to more than 1,700 species, and show that recent biological trends match climate change predictions. Global meta-analyses documented significant range shifts averaging 6.1 km per decade towards the poles (or metres per decade upward), and significant mean advancement of spring events by 2.3 days per decade. We define a diagnostic fingerprint of temporal and spatial 'sign-switching' responses uniquely predicted by twentieth century climate trends. Among appropriate long-term/large-scale/multi-species data sets, this diagnostic fingerprint was found for 279 species. This suite of analyses generates 'very high confidence' (as laid down by the IPCC) that climate change is already affecting living systems.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent Climate Change
TL;DR: Range-restricted species, particularly polar and mountaintop species, show severe range contractions and have been the first groups in which entire species have gone extinct due to recent climate change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Extinction risk from climate change
Chris D. Thomas,Alison Cameron,Rhys E. Green,Rhys E. Green,Michel Bakkenes,Linda J. Beaumont,Yvonne C. Collingham,Barend F.N. Erasmus,Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira,Alan Grainger,Lee Hannah,Lesley Hughes,Brian Huntley,Albert S. van Jaarsveld,Guy F. Midgley,Lera Miles,Lera Miles,Miguel A. Ortega-Huerta,A. Townsend Peterson,Oliver L. Phillips,Stephen E. Williams +20 more
TL;DR: Estimates of extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.
Journal ArticleDOI
Rapid Range Shifts of Species Associated with High Levels of Climate Warming
TL;DR: A meta-analysis shows that species are shifting their distributions in response to climate change at an accelerating rate, and that the range shift of each species depends on multiple internal species traits and external drivers of change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Investigating soil moisture-climate interactions in a changing climate: A review
Sonia I. Seneviratne,T. Corti,Edouard Davin,Martin Hirschi,Eric B. Jaeger,Irene Lehner,Boris Orlowsky,Adriaan J. Teuling +7 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a synthesis of past research on the role of soil moisture for the climate system, based both on modelling and observational studies, focusing on soil moisture-temperature and soil moistureprecipitation feedbacks, and their possible modifications with climate change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitude.
Curtis Deutsch,Joshua J. Tewksbury,Raymond B. Huey,Kimberly S. Sheldon,Cameron K. Ghalambor,David C. Haak,Paul R. Martin,Paul R. Martin +7 more
TL;DR: The results show that warming in the tropics, although relatively small in magnitude, is likely to have the most deleterious consequences because tropical insects are relatively sensitive to temperature change and are currently living very close to their optimal temperature, so that warming may even enhance their fitness.
References
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Book
Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors set the stage for impact, adaptation, and vulnerability assessment of climate change in the context of sustainable development and equity, and developed and applied scenarios in Climate Change Impact, Adaptation, and Vulnerability Assessment.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological responses to recent climate change.
Gian-Reto Walther,Eric Post,Peter Convey,Annette Menzel,Camille Parmesan,Trevor J. C. Beebee,Jean-Marc Fromentin,Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,Franz Bairlein +8 more
TL;DR: A review of the ecological impacts of recent climate change exposes a coherent pattern of ecological change across systems, from polar terrestrial to tropical marine environments.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate Extremes: Observations, Modeling, and Impacts
David R. Easterling,Gerald A. Meehl,Camille Parmesan,Stanley A. Changnon,Thomas R. Karl,Linda O. Mearns +5 more
TL;DR: Results of observational studies suggest that in many areas that have been analyzed, changes in total precipitation are amplified at the tails, and changes in some temperature extremes have been observed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change, coral bleaching and the future of the world's coral reefs
TL;DR: The results suggest that the thermal tolerances of reef-building corals are likely to be exceeded every year within the next few decades, and suggests that unrestrained warming cannot occur without the loss and degradation of coral reefs on a global scale.
Journal ArticleDOI
Poleward shifts in geographical ranges of butterfly species associated with regional warming
Camille Parmesan,Nils Ryrholm,Constantí Stefanescu,Jane K. Hill,Chris D. Thomas,Henri Descimon,Brian Huntley,Lauri Kaila,Jaakko Kullberg,Toomas Tammaru,W. John Tennent,Jeremy A. Thomas,Martin Warren +12 more
TL;DR: The authors showed that migratory species can respond rapidly to yearly climate variation, and further global warming is predicted to continue for the next 50-100 years, and some migratory animals can respond quickly to climate variation.
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Extinction risk from climate change
Chris D. Thomas,Alison Cameron,Rhys E. Green,Rhys E. Green,Michel Bakkenes,Linda J. Beaumont,Yvonne C. Collingham,Barend F.N. Erasmus,Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira,Alan Grainger,Lee Hannah,Lesley Hughes,Brian Huntley,Albert S. van Jaarsveld,Guy F. Midgley,Lera Miles,Lera Miles,Miguel A. Ortega-Huerta,A. Townsend Peterson,Oliver L. Phillips,Stephen E. Williams +20 more