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According to sciencealert.com, during the analysis of 258 peer-reviewed studies, the researchers compared more than 12,000. bacteria, fungi, plant and animal species more than 30 thousand. and created a database called BioShifts.
This is the first detailed analysis of its kind. And while this database is limited by the errors of our own human research, these data certainly suggest that marine species are more sensitive to global thermal change than land animals.
While terrestrial species are approaching the poles due to global warming, this change is “at a much slower rate than expected, especially in warm climate areas,” the study authors note.
The study showed that amphibian animals move more than 12 meters per year, and reptiles approach the equator 6.5 meters per year. Meanwhile, disease-carrying insects often travel 18.5 kilometers a year toward the poles.
Relatively speaking, this is a lot, but the bigger picture is that marine species travel an average of almost 6 kilometers a year towards the poles, while land animals move away from their usual habitats by almost 1.8 meters per year. (a little faster than previously thought). but still quite slow).
The difference between aquatic and terrestrial animals can exist for several reasons. For example, this may be related to temperature sensitivity. Air conducts heat 25 times less efficiently than water, and many land animals can easily regulate their body temperature if they wish.
As a result, many marine species and many ectotherms, cold-blooded species, are much more sensitive to fluctuating temperatures on Earth.
Also, animals in the water can migrate much more easily if the need arises. On earth, various human activities restrict the movement of animals. In fact, when animals are exposed to various anthropogenic disturbances, they tend to move away from the heat source rather than from it.
This is in line with the general idea that land use and climate change encourage species to move in opposite directions when there is a push and pull redistribution.
“Land degradation and fragmentation due to change in land use can weaken the ability of land species to follow changing isotherms (lines on a map connecting regions with the same temperature),” the study authors write. .
If the authors of this study are right, and marine animals capture temperature changes more sensitively, this can have serious and far-reaching consequences. And we have seen some of them before.
Scientists say that during the Permian-Triassic species extinction period, the most devastating event in Earth’s history, only a few marine organisms remained in the same habitats, with a sharp drop in oxygen levels.
“Either fugitives or murderers,” said Curtis Deutsch, an oceanographer at the University of Washington. And more than 50 percent. Marine species have unfortunately reached the second option.
Rising temperatures are now pushing animals into increasingly shrinking habitats. These animals swim towards the poles and, in fact, run the risk of not finding colder water.
Of course, this is also happening on the ground. Animals high in the mountains are said to be “climbing to extinction” as rising temperatures and competition push them to the limit. However, in water, such an “escalator” moves much faster.
As impressive and necessary as the new database is, its authors unfortunately recognize that it has serious limitations.
Despite its integrity, the meta-analysis on which the BioShifts base was based covers only 0.6%. of all known life forms on Earth, and the animals studied are mainly concentrated in the northern hemisphere.
So even though we call it global meta-analysis, it really isn’t. It is simply the closest result we can achieve in the current circumstances.
We can only work with what we have, and it seems that our known animals are having a hard time finding new habitats due to the increasingly severe climate crisis. BioShifts is a way to keep track of these changes so you can predict what will happen next.
The findings of this study were published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
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