8
January 2004
Feeling the heat: Climate change and biodiversity loss
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Many plant and animal species are unlikely to survive climate change. New analyses suggest that 15–37% of a sample of 1,103 land plants and animals would eventually become extinct as a result of climate changes expected by 2050. For some of these species there will no longer be anywhere suitable to live. Others will be unable to reach places where the climate is suitable. A rapid shift to technologies that do not produce greenhouse gases, combined with carbon sequestration, could save 15–20% of species from extinction. The cover shows a species in the firing line. Boyd's forest dragon, Hypsilurus boydii, is found in Queensland, Australia. About 90% of its distribution would become climatically unsuitable by 2050, on maximum climate warming scenarios. (Photo: Stephen E. Williams)
Extinction risk from climate change 
CHRIS D. THOMAS, ALISON CAMERON, RHYS E. GREEN, MICHEL
BAKKENES, LINDA J. BEAUMONT, YVONNE C. COLLINGHAM, BAREND F. N. ERASMUS,
MARINEZ FERREIRA DE SIQUEIRA, ALAN GRAINGER, LEE HANNAH, LESLEY HUGHES,
BRIAN HUNTLEY, ALBERT S. VAN JAARSVELD, GUY F. MIDGLEY, LERA MILES, MIGUEL
A. ORTEGA-HUERTA, A. TOWNSEND PETERSON, OLIVER L. PHILLIPS & STEPHEN
E. WILLIAMS
Nature 427, 145–148 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02121
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Ecology: Clouded futures
J. ALAN POUNDS & ROBERT PUSCHENDORF
Global warming is altering the distribution and abundance of plant and
animal species. Application of a basic law of ecology predicts that many
will vanish if temperatures continue to rise.
Nature 427, 107–109 (2004); doi:10.1038/427107a
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