Giving Compass' Take:

· After reviewing over 10,000 scientific studies, researchers have concluded that rapid changes caused by climate change are outpacing the ability for animals around the world to adapt to their new environment.

· What can we do to protect biodiversity with the growing effects of climate change? 

· Here's how climate change is effecting the species in the Amazon Rainforest.

The researchers evaluated more than 10,000 published scientific studies for their work. The analysis concludes that animals can respond to climate change, but those responses generally don’t allow species to cope with the rapid pace of rising temperatures.

The researchers analyzed abundant bird species such as the common magpie and the European pied flycatcher, which have developed adaptations climate change. Fredric Janzen, a professor of ecology, evolution, and organismal biology at Iowa State University, contributed data on turtles to the study.

“The big picture is that climate is already changing. We know this,” Janzen says. “We also know that lots of organisms are responding to changing climatic conditions. What we found out is that, while these species are adapting, it’s just not happening fast enough.”

The researchers identified relevant data from the scientific literature to relate changes in climate over the years to possible changes in traits the species included in the study possess. The team then evaluated whether observed trait changes were associated with desired outcomes, such as higher survival rates or increased number of offspring.

Species respond to climate change by shifting the timing of important biological processes, such as hibernation, reproduction, and migration. The researchers found that those changes, known as phenological traits, occurred more commonly in temperate regions, where biological processes shifted to earlier dates than in the past. Species also can experience changes in morphological traits, such as body size and mass. But the study found no systematic pattern to explain how climate change affects morphological traits.

Read the full article about animals and climate change by Fred Love at Futurity.