Climate change has already started to impact wildlife in a variety of ways. Changes in weather patterns, which affect the timing of life cycle events such as mating, flowering, and migration; rising temperatures; and the drying up of rivers and lakes, which are critical sources of food, water, and habitat, are among them.
Animals are straining to adapt, threatening their extinction. They also endure pressures caused by humans, such as pollution, invasive species, and habitat loss.
Polar bears hunt seals on sea ice; when the ice melts due to climate change, they will lose their home. This will result in population isolation and, eventually, species extinction.
According to researchers, a small, genetically different group of polar bears in Southeast Greenland exploit ice melanges—a combination of glacier and sea ice carved from marine-terminating glaciers—to survive during weak ice years.
This approach may help them live in a warmer environment but it is simply a short-term fix. The Arctic is not likely to have enough glacier ice to sustain the bear population for much longer, and most bears in this area are already in trouble.
Climate change is having a significant influence on species, particularly great white sharks. This is due to the fast warming of the oceans. This also impacts the habitats these species use, which can cause serious difficulties for marine ecosystems and the animals that reside in them.
When a marine heat wave hit the California coast in 2014, aquarium scientists noticed that young great white sharks were being seen further north than they had ever been. This is because sharks prefer warmer water more suitable for their body temperature.
According to the study just published in Scientific Reports, these sharks are migrating north in search of a better thermal home. This is terrible news for other creatures, like sea otters, whose population is declining due to the sharks' increased presence.
Blue whales have become one of the most endangered marine mammals on the globe due to years of whaling, human-caused climate change, and an invading tourism industry. A range of human activities, including noise pollution and vessel hits, endanger their natural environment.
Researchers from New Zealand examined data on blue whales in the South Taranaki Bight to determine how changing ocean conditions affected their behavior. The study discovered that blue whales were more likely to feed in regions where the water was colder under warm and usual ocean conditions, indicating deep, nutrient-rich water that was pushed toward the surface in a process known as upwelling.
Climate change, mostly caused by fossil fuels such as coal and oil, has the potential to influence biodiversity significantly. It can have various consequences, including changing temperatures and weather patterns, limiting food supplies, and causing habitat loss.
One of the most significant implications for giraffes is that they are extremely sensitive to changes in seasonal weather and food availability. Their diet varies depending on the season; they eat shrubs, vines, and deciduous trees. (leaves that wilt and shed each year).
According to a recent study, human-caused climate change may influence the giraffe population structure in Tanzania. Researchers examined the social networks of 540 wild Masai giraffes and discovered that the closer they lived to traditional Masai people compounds, the smaller their home ranges were.
Droughts are becoming increasingly severe throughout most of Africa due to climate change, threatening elephant habitats. This endangers an already vulnerable population of African elephants.
Forest elephants, the smallest of the three species, are important in helping tropical forests store carbon. Their feeding behaviors, which include pushing over trees and peeling off their bark, help distribute seeds embedded in their feces, promoting the establishment of larger trees that absorb more carbon.
Scientists discovered that the extinction of forest elephants might result in losing 7% of the biomass in African forests, amounting to a whopping 3 billion tonnes of carbon. According to ecologist Fabio Berzaghi of the French Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, this amount represents "a very high contribution of wildlife to the capacity of forests to store carbon."
