A study by two researchers from University of Oxford, Rob Salguero-Gómez and Maria Paniw has concluded that mammals may face possible extinction in future as global temperatures rise.
The report was published on Monday on the Website of conservation.com.
They stated, “Our study found that climate affects mammal populations in both positive and negative ways, depending on the lifecycle stage of an animal whether a cub, juvenile, adult or their interactions with other species around them.
“In the case of impala – a species particularly vulnerable to increasing drought, less rainfall doesn’t necessarily harm their chances of survival or reproduction. Like the Svalbard reindeer, the effects of climate change tend to only bite when populations are especially dense.
“Understanding these complex interactions is deeply important. Impala and reindeer, like many mammals, are not just a food source for humans: their eating habits also control plant populations, which in turn provide clean water, healthy soil and nourishment for other species in the food web. It’s in our interest to understand how mammals react to climate change, to learn how we – and the wider environment – might fare.
“There’s a lot of work to be done. So far, researchers have only assessed the climate’s often contradictory effects on 87 mammal species – about 1% of the known 6,400 mammal species worldwide. Worse, we know very little about these complex potential effects in parts of the world most likely to see the biggest changes in temperature and precipitation, such as the Arctic.”
Human influences on the environment also tend to make the changing climate’s effects worse. In regions with lots of species, like the tropics, the destruction of habitat by people has combined with more unpredictable weather to cause particular harm to mammals.
Lemurs in Madagascar, already threatened by deforestation, are now facing drier weather – adding food scarcity to an already long list of threats. But without data tracking how species are responding at different stages of their lives in these regions, it’s difficult to predict what might happen next.
To effectively predict the fate of mammals, scientists need data collected from studying individual animals at many sites and across many years. This can tell us about their chances of survival and reproduction, the researchers said.