Global Warming Increases Species Extinctions Worldwide
University of Texas at Austin (Posted by ScienceDaily.com)
15 Nov 2006
Global warming has already caused extinctions in the most sensitive habitats and will continue to cause more species to go extinct over the next 50 to 100 years, confirms the most comprehensive study since 2003 on the effects of climate change on wild species worldwide by a University of Texas at Austin biologist.
Dr. Camille Parmesan's synthesis also shows that species are not evolving fast enough to prevent extinction. "This is absolutely the most comprehensive synthesis of the impact of climate change on species to date," said Parmesan, associate professor of integrative biology. "Earlier synthesis were hampered from drawing broad conclusions by the relative lack of studies. Because there are now so many papers on this subject, we can start pulling together some patterns that we weren't able to before."
Parmesan reviewed more than 800 scientific studies on the effects of human-induced climate change on thousands of species. "We are seeing stronger responses in species in areas with very cold-adapted species that have had strong warming trends, like Antarctica and the Artic," said Parmesan. "That's something we expected a few years ago but didn't quite have the data to compare regions." Previously published predictions, including those co-authored by Parmesan in a 2001 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, were that species restricted to cold climate habitats like the Earth's poles or mountain tops and with narrow temperature tolerances (for example, tropical corals) would be most affected by global warming. Less than a decade later, those predictions have been born out.
CWD Found in Deer near Sundance
Gazette News Services
16 Nov 2006
Chronic wasting disease has spread into another area of the state where it had not been detected before, a state Game and Fish Department official said. A white-tailed deer harvested in Hunt Area 4 east of Sundance tested positive for the disease. The buck deer was harvested in the Moskee area on Nov. 4, according to the agency. "We're concerned that CWD continues to spread to new parts of the state, but it's not a surprise that CWD was found in Hunt Area 4," Scott Edberg, wildlife supervisor for the Casper Region, said in a statement released Tuesday.
"The disease has previously been found to the east in South Dakota, and to the south in Hunt Area 6." Hunt Area 4 borders the Wyoming/South Dakota state line and is open to general deer hunting until Nov. 20, and limited quota doe/fawn hunting until Nov. 30. CWD is a fatal neurological disease that has been diagnosed in wild deer, elk and moose. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend against eating animals that test positive for CWD.
Pennsylvania Game Commission Prepares to Collect Samples for CWD Testing; Game Commission to Conduct CWD Response Drill [Press Release]
Pennsylvania Game Commission (Posted by Yahoo.com)
15 Nov 2006
While there continues to be no known cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the Commonwealth, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, joined by veterinarians and laboratory technicians from the Pennsylvania and U.S. departments of Agriculture, is stepping up its efforts next week to verify that fact. "Currently, there are no confirmed or suspected cases of CWD-infected deer or elk in Pennsylvania, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that it stays that way," said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. "We are planning to collect samples from 4,000 hunter-killed deer to test for CWD in the upcoming firearms deer season. Last year, we tested samples from more than 3,800 deer. CWD was not detected in any of the samples."
Game Commission deer aging teams will collect deer heads randomly throughout the state beginning Nov. 28 - the second day of the state's two-week concurrent rifle deer season. The heads will be taken to the six Game Commission Region Offices, where samples will be collected for testing. The CWD tests on these deer samples will be conducted at the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary diagnostic laboratory at the New Bolton Center in Chester County. Results are expected in 2007. The Game Commission collected liver, lung and blood samples from all 35 hunter-killed elk during the two elk seasons held in September and November.
Climate Change Creates Dramatic Decline in Red-winged Black Bird Population
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Posted by Biologynews.net)
15 Nov 2006
Global warming strikes again. A University of Illinois researcher reports that a red-winged black bird population in Ontario, Canada has decreased by 50 percent since 1972. The decrease is related to a positive shift in the North Atlantic Oscillation which has resulted in warmer, wetter winters in the southeastern United States. When Patrick Weatherhead put his 25-year data about the red-winged black bird alongside climate records, he found a direct correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation. The NAO is a dominant cause of winter climate variability in the North Atlantic region ranging from central North America to Europe and much of Northern Asia.
It has been on an upward trend for the past 30 years. Weatherhead, an ecologist who specializes in the behavior of birds and snakes, says that although some people may be in denial, global warming exists. "There are long-term records that show melting glaciers and altered ecological patterns like earlier migration and earlier nesting of birds. "When you first start out, you don't set out to get 25 years of data on a topic," he said.
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