Climate change has adverse effect on bird species

Climate change will likely have devastating effect on many animal species with tropical birds being one of the worst hit species, especially those birds in tropics that have their habitats in mountainous regions.

This is one of the conclusions of the latest study published in the journal Biological Conservation by Çağan Şekercioğlu, scientist at the University of Utah.

He believes that the number of extinct bird species due to climate change will be somewhere between 100 to 2,500 depending on the total increase in temperatures and the total amount of habitat loss. Without the adequate conservation efforts total number of bird species that will forever perish from the face of this planet due to climate change is likely to be 600 to 900 by the end of this century.

Climate change is not only expected to bring ever-increasing temperatures but also more frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves, wildfires, cold spells, hurricanes and storms all of which can have devastating impact on many bird species across the globe.

Climate change can even spread malaria-carrying mosquitoes to higher elevations in places like Hawaii, where the malaria parasite can endanger previously unexposed bird species.

Şekercioğlu also added that "not all effects of climate change are negative for birds, and changes in temperature and precipitation regimes will benefit some species. Nevertheless, climate change will not benefit many species."

One thing is sure though, in order to protect not only bird but many other animal species the world will have to do lot more research and provide more conservation efforts. Failure to do so will likely lead to yet another mass extinction event on our planet that will put the future of our generations in great jeopardy.