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| Migration patterns are picking up due to global warming. |
LONDON: As a result of global warming trends, plant and animal species are moving their habitats farther and farther north at a faster pace than previously thought, a new survey said. “These changes are equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the equator at around 20 cm per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year. This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of the century,” said Professor Chris Thomas senior author on the paper and a professor of conservation biology at the University of York in the United Kingdom. The survey was a long-term look at species in Europe, North and South America and Malaysia, and showed that as temperature changes continue to increase, species are moving quicker. Published in the journal Science, the study looked at the average rate of movement of species, which it said is three times faster than previously studies expected for migration towards the poles. Organisms are also moving quicker up mountains, at rates twice as fast as other scientists believed, highlighting the growing concern many experts studying species migration have over worries that global warming could dramatically change eco-systems. Species are moving northward in the northern hemisphere and southward in the southern hemisphere on an average rate of about 16 kilometers per decade. Read Full: lobal warming forces plant, animal species to move habitats - Bikya Masr : Bikya Masr
