Climate Change

Climate change seems to be forcing many creatures to migrate to more favorable places up to three times faster than previously thought, according to a study released Thursday.

Researchers collected earlier studies on the migration of species and combined in a meta-analysis showed a clear tendency to move to a cooler climate, with faster migration in places where heat is most intense.

"These changes amount to the animals and plants away from Ecuador about 20 centimeters per hour for each hour of the day for every day of the year," said the developer, Chris Thomas, professor of biology at the University of York, UK."This has been happening over the past 40 years and will continue for at least the rest of this century," he added.

The study, published in the journal Science, is "a summary of the state of knowledge of the world how species are responding to climate change," explained co-author and professor of ecology work of York Jane Hill. "Our analysis shows that rates of response to climate change are two or three times faster than previously thought," he said.

The data come from studies of birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, spiders and plants in Europe, North America, Chile, Malaysia and South Africa's Marion Island.

By pooling the studies and analyze their findings, the researchers first found a link between rising temperatures and the movement of organisms.

"This research shows that global warming is what is causing the species to move toward the poles and higher elevations," said another author of the study, I-Ching Chen, now a researcher at Academia Sinica, Taiwan . "We first demonstrated that the change in the distribution of species is correlated with the change of climate in that region," he said.

Previous studies have suggested that some species are endangered due to habitat change, but he does not dwell on that topic. Instead, the researchers said they hoped that the analysis gave a more accurate picture of the changes occurring around the globe.

"The verification of how fast they are moving species due to climate change indicates that many, in fact, may be heading quickly toward extinction, where climatic conditions are deteriorating," said Thomas. "On the other hand, other species are migrating to new areas where the climate has become appropriate, so there will be some winners and many losers," he said.