11 Sep 2016

Climate effect on species needs global research effort

12:19 pm on 11 September 2016

Scientists are calling for a coordinated, global effort to research how climate change will affect different species - including many of New Zealand's unique creatures.

The paper, published in the international journal Science, said changes in global temperatures were affecting the diversity and distribution of living species worldwide - but not enough is known about how to protect them.

Tuatara

Reptiles, including the ancient endemic tuatara, as well as invertebrates and frogs, thrive in predator-free environments. Photo: CC BY 2.0 Sid Mosdell / Flickr

The paper called for research to be done so outcomes for every species affected by climate change could be forecast.

Lincoln University researcher Dr William Godsoe, who was involved in writing the paper, said climate change was already affecting some of New Zealand's beloved native species.

Tuatara were one species where the effects were already being documented, he said.

"If it's really warm out, tuataras produce more males and in effect that means they're wasting resources that could be used to produce females that are more useful for producing more offspring in the next generation."

Coordinated research would provide better information on how to protect different species, Dr Godsoe said.

"Right now we're treating a mouse the same way as an elephant or a fish or a tree, yet we know that those are all very different organisms and they are going to respond to their environment in different ways."

With more than 8.7 million species worldwide, gathering the necessary biological information to improve predictions would be a daunting task, the paper said.

Co-author Mark Urban, from the University of Connecticut, said the biggest challenge was pinpointing which species to concentrate on and which regions to allocate resources to.