A new analysis published this week suggests that extreme weather linked to climate change might be much harder on native species than on nonnative ones.
As the planet warms, extreme weather events — heat waves, cold snaps, droughts and floods — are becoming more common and destructive.
The new paper, published on Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution by a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggests that these sudden, violent changes in conditions could be helping to fundamentally reshape ecosystems.
In a statement, the team said that research on the impacts of extreme weather on ecosystems, while still in its early stages, was “critically important” to our ability to understand the effects of global warming on biodiversity.
The researchers, led by Xuan Liu, an ecologist at the Academy of Sciences, analyzed 443 studies that examined the responses of 1,852 native and 187 nonnative species — from land, freshwater and marine habitats — to extreme weather.
Persons:
Xuan Liu
Organizations:
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences