Common plants and animals facing dramatic biodiversity decline from climate change

While much scientific and public attention has focussed on the many species endangered or on the brink of extinction, the impacts of climate change on species biodiversity are much larger. A landmark study looking at nearly 50,000 common species with widespread ranges has determined that half of these animals and two thirds of the examined plant species will lose more than half their range in the next 70 years, by 2080, if nothing is done to slow down the rate of global warming through cutting carbon emissions.

There is presently underway a biodiversity crisis with habitat loss and climate change causing the 6th mass extinction. Landuse and vegetation policy changes such as the recent Queensland Land clearing changes, exacerbate climate change impacts on biodiversity. It has been shown that preservation of plant biodiversity provides a crucial buffer to negative effects of climate change and preservation of biodiversity for many common species. Similarly, logging of native bushland and forests such as the Victorian Central Highland and East Gippsland forests destroys important wildlife refugia which also act as important carbon sinks. Victoria's forests are amoung the world's most carbon dense.

While there has been targeted research on how climate change impacts certain endangered and rare species, there have been few broad studies of how an increase in global temperature and climate change will affect more common species distribution and range.

2 Arctic seal species listed as Endangered due to Climate Change

The Centre for Biological Diversity reports that as a result of their 2008 petition, the US Federal Government has added Ringed seals and Bearded seals, found in the waters off Alaska, to the list of endangered species.

Both seal species are dependent on the existence of sea ice which is rapidly declining during summer, with some scientists saying the Arctic could be largely ice free as early as 2016. These are the first species since polar bears to be protected primarily because of climate change threats.

“Arctic animals face a clear danger of extinction from climate change,” said Shaye Wolf, the Center’s climate science director. “The Endangered Species Act offers strong protections for these seals, but we can’t save the Arctic ecosystem without confronting the broader climate crisis. The Obama administration has to take decisive action, right now, against greenhouse gas pollution to preserve a world filled with ice seals, walruses and polar bears.”

Related: Centre for Biological Diversity: Saving the Bearded, Ringed and Spotted Seals

Carnaby's Cockatoo suffers 37 per cent population decline in one year

Flocks of Carnaby's Black Cockatoo are iconic sights for the people of Perth, the Swan River Region and the forests of the South west. But comparing two population surveys in 2010 and 2011 showed a 37 percent decline in numbers across the Swan river region. That is a 37 per cent decline in one year.

According to Statistical modelling based on the 2011 Great Cocky Count the population of Carnaby’s cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) in the Swan Region was between 5200 and 8600 birds. A year earlier it was estimated that the population was 8000 to 10,000.

Related: Scientific American - Endangered Australian Cockatoo Loses One Third of Population in Just 1 Year | Biodiversity crisis: Habitat loss and climate change causing 6th mass extinction

Tropical insects face catastrophic reduction in reproduction with climate change

It looks like cold blooded species (ectotherms) in the tropics could be at an extreme risk of extinction with just moderate increases in temperature according to scientific studies. The latest study looked at the effects of increased temperature on the entire life cycle of one tropical ectotherm species, suggesting reproduction may suffer a catastrophic reduction as the climate warms with just moderate increases in tropical temperatures. The research has possible ramifications for all tropical ectotherms - Insects, spiders, frogs, snakes, turtles and other reptiles.

This is not the first indication that global warming impact on tropical species is greater than expected. Small increases in temperature in tropical ecosystems can have large impacts as many species are already near their thermal physiological maximum. Many species also have small dispersal ranges which increases their risk of extinction through small changes in habitat or environment.

Biodiversity crisis: Habitat loss and climate change causing 6th mass extinction

Scientists meeting at the University of Copenhagen have warned that biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world, describing the loss of species as the 6th mass extinction event on the earth. The world is losing species at a rate that is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, with the challenges of conserving the world's species larger than mitigating the negative effects of global climate change.

Video: Call of Life - Facing the mass extinction

While writing the article on Biodiversity crisis: Habitat loss and climate change causing 6th mass extinction I came across this film - Call of Life - Facing the mass extinction made by Species Alliance and released in 2010. I found the interviews with scientists and academics engaging and in the sum total empowering to face this issue of the biodiversity crisis and the 6th mass extinction which humans are causing.

Wandering Albatross Riding the winds of climate change

We are stacking the climate dice against the survival of many species on planet earth. A few species may be able to ride the changes, at least temporarily. And so it is with the largest of birds, the wandering albatross, with some populations of this species able to take advantage, so far, of the changing winds of climate change. But for how long?

Global warming has caused the westerly winds in the Southern Ocean to increase in intensity and move poleward. The wandering albatross, with a three metre wing span, spends much of it's life soaring above the ocean searching for food, with the changes in the winds increasing it's foraging ability, breeding capacity and reducing it's conflict with commercial long line fishing operations.

"Why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"why don't the people get rid of the lizards?" said Arthur Dent. Well it seems the people are doing very well at getting rid of the lizards and koalas and many other species, due to climate change. Yep, it is our carbon emissions which is driving up global mean temperatures, altering the climate and driving lizards to extinction. The quote from Arthur Dent comes from Douglas Adams explaining the concept of democracy in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Unfortunately, it seems we are getting rid of the wrong lizards - the ones with four feet that eat insects and are important prey for other small carnivores. That just leaves the cold-blooded political Lizards we have elected to office, still in charge and warming themselves in the glow from the fossil fuel vested interests.

IUCN report: Koalas threatened by Climate Change

The Koala has been identified by the prestigous International Union for the Conservation of Nature as under threat from climate change in a new report released in Copenhagen.

The report - Species and Climate Change - focuses on 10 species, including Arctic Fox, Leatherback Turtle, Beluga Whale, Clownfish, Emperor Penguin, Quiver Tree, Ringed Seal, salmon and staghorn corals, and the Koala.

The Koala is an arboreal marsupial found from north Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in Eucalypt woodland habitat. It is an iconic animal strongly identified with Australia. In November 2009, 20 of Australia's leading koala scientists met with the Government's Threatened Species Scientific Committee head to review the plight of Australia's koala population.

Southern Bluefin Tuna crashing toward extinction to feed sushi & sushimi market

"Every indication is that the Bluefin Tuna population is crashing toward extinction," said Felicity Wade from The Wilderness Society. "While it is heartening to see governments finally acting on its plight, the 20% international cut is inadequate for the crisis the blue fin tuna is facing. If we were serious about bringing this fish back from the brink," concluded Ms Wade, "the fishery would be completely closed while populations recovered."

The fish was listed in 1996 as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The major market for the fish is Japan to make Sushi and sushimi, highly prized as a Japanese delicacy.

The 25% cut in the Australian quota for Southern Bluefin Tuna has been described by the Wilderness Society as a step in the right direction, but the cut is too little too late with the fish species tittering close to the edge of extinction. The Quota reduction was made in an agreement at the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna meeting in South Korea in October 2009.

TRAFFIC's Global Marine Programme Leader Glenn Sant said that the Southern Bluefin Tuna populations would not recover for many years, even under the best scenario. "The members agree it is a crisis with the breeding stock being somewhere between three and eight per cent of its original level," said Sant. "A 20 per cent cut is a step towards resolving the terribly low level of Southern Bluefin Tuna Stock, with the scientific assessment of the scenario saying there could be recovery, but only after many years."

Conservation organisations at the meeting which included WWF and TRAFFIC had asked for a temporary closure of the fishery, while Australia had requested a 50 per cent cut in catches. The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna is a voluntary fishery management group comprised of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the Philippines as a formal cooperating non-member. Much of the Southern Bluefin Tuna catch ends up in Japan where it is prized as sushi and sushimi.

Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Taiwanese Bluefin tuna fleets use long line fishing which results in the incidental deaths of thousands of seabirds, particularly petrels and albatross. "The 20% reduction in SBT quota is insufficient to give the species a chance to recover and still means the likely death of 10,700 albatross each year", said Nicola Beynon, Humane Society International (HSI) Senior Program Manager. Most of the Australian catch is done through netting for aquaculture sea farming, minimising sea bird deaths.

According to HSI the Scientific Committee to the Commission has estimated the SBT population is at a mere 3-8% of its pre-exploitation biomass and only a zero quota would give the species a decent chance to recover. HSI and other conservation organisations have pushed for the Commission to suspend the global catch until fish numbers recover to sustain ecologically sustainable harvests.

The tuna fishing industry in Australia is centred on Port Lincoln in South Australia. Australia's average catch per year has been reduced by 30% from 5265 tonnes to 4015 tonnes over 2010 and 2011, and the global catch quota reduced by 20 per cent from 11,810 tonnes to 9449 tonnes along with 20 per cent reductions to other countries.

In 2005 Humane Society International fought a tough court case against the Australian Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell to defend the endangered southern bluefin tuna from chronic overfishing. The society were appealing for protection of the fish as an endangered species, with the Southern Blufin Tuna meeting the criteria for listing as threatened as advised by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee. HSI lost the case.

For 20 years Japan plundered the Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery. Japan's overfishing through an Experimental Fishing Program (EFP) was challenged by Australia and New Zealand in 1999 with provisional measures granted pending Arbitration in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The Tribunal's Order effectively applied the precautionary approach to fisheries management and highlighted the argument that unilateral experimental fishing cannot exceed a State's national allocation. (The Southern Bluefin Tuna Case: ITLOS Hears Its First Fishery Dispute)

A 2006 report by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin found that Japan had illegally caught up to $6 billion worth of the fish over the past 20 years. The report said that if Japan had stuck to its catch quota, the stock of Southern Bluefin would be at least five times larger.

Northern Blue Fin Tuna stocks critical - Monaco applies for CITES listing

The northern bluefin tuna also faces overfishing with the Prince of Monaco applying for a CITES listing which would ban the trade in the species for commercial purposes, placing much more pressure on the southern bluefin tuna.

The scientists from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) met in Madrid, Spain (21-23 October) to assess current stock status of Atlantic bluefin tuna against the specific criteria necessary to list a species under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). ICCAT's scientists estimate that the current spawning biomass is less than 15 per cent of what it once was before fishing began - meaning Atlantic bluefin tuna meets the criteria for a CITES Appendix I listing.

"What's needed to save the stocks is a suspension of fishing activity and a suspension of international commercial trade - this is the only possible package that can give this fish a chance to recover," said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean. "We must stop mercilessly exploiting this fragile natural resource until stocks show clear signs of rebound and until sustainable management and control measures are firmly put in place."

WWF and Greenpeace are urging ICCAT to impose a zero quota at the organization's next annual meeting on 6-16 November in Recife, Brazil. The application for CITES Appendix I listing will go before the 175 CITES member countries to decide at the next Conference of the Parties of CITES, in Doha, Qatar, in March 2010.

Sources:

• Wilderness Society, Oct 27, 2009 - Blue Fin Tuna - Too Little, Too Late
• WWF, Oct 23, 2009 - Southern Bluefin quota cuts could be "too little, too late"
• Human Society International Australia, Oct 27, 2009 - Tuna and Albatross Catches still too High
• WWF, Oct 28, 2009 - Atlantic bluefin tuna trade ban supported by fishery's scientists
• Howard S. Schiffman, JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE LAW & POLICY (1999), The Southern Bluefin Tuna Case: ITLOS Hears Its First Fishery Dispute
• Commission for the Conservation of Southern Blue Fish Tuna