21% of Cetaceans Could Go Extinct Due to Global Warming
According to a new study, climate change could drastically alter 88% of the waters where dolphins, whales and porpoises are found. While some species may stand to benefit from the changes, the research concluded that one fifth of cetacean species could be lost forever.
The cetaceans most at risk are colder water species and species with restricted ranges in shallower waters. All in all, as many as half of cetacean species should experience a shrinking of their habitat as the oceans warm.
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Many polar cetaceans such as the Narwhal and Beluga were already known to be endangered due to disappearing sea ice, however many species that live in warmer, temperate zones will be affected just as much, the research found. According to Dr. Colin McLeod, who conducted the study: “Some species found in temperate waters may be at risk not just because of the water temperatures they live in, but also because they only live in shallow waters. These species cannot simply respond to increases in sea temperature by moving into cooler neighbouring areas if the waters there are too deep.”
Examples of endangered shallow-living species include Europe’s White-Beaked Dolphin and Mexico’s Vaquita. The Vaquita, which is the world’s smallest marine cetacean, is only found in the Gulf of California. Since the Gulf of California is so enclosed, the tiny porpoises may have no way out if waters there get too warm. Also at risk would be the entire group of poorly-known dolphin species of the genus Cephalorhynchus.
In total, the casualties could include 5 of the world’s 6 species of porpoise, as well as two species of baleen whale: the Bowhead Whale and the Southern Right Whale.
Because global warming can so quickly change the suitability of habitats and ecosystems, merely protecting habitat by setting aside marine and nature preserves cannot be a roundabout solution. If these species are going to survive, then any solution must include doing whatever can be done to slow the rapid changes wrought by human-caused climate change.
Source: Wildlife Extra
Image Credit: The Pug Father on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
I’m not sure that I understand the concept of species extinction. A ’species’ is merely a man made concept. Animals and plants live and die as individuals carrying genomes to the next generation, or not. Genetic variability may be important in the face of changing environmental variability. But it’s hard to assess how much is ‘enough’ (if such a concept exists).
So a single species with lots of variability within it and lots of individuals *may* be ‘better’ than lots of small pockets of low individual count species. I use the term ‘better’ here in the same way that it’s implied in the article that it’s ‘better’ not to ‘lose’ species.
@ Tim Coote
You must be a fan of genocide. You seem to imply that it’s ok to lose variations of a species as long as the more populated species remains.
The argument here (assuming the article points to humans as the culprit of global warming) is that because of humans, sections of the genetic genepool of animals will die off. These variations have been successful enough to become a population, aka species (those animals sharing specific characteristics). They will not be dying off because of their mutations, they will be dying off because of an intrusion to their habitat. Also, in the animal kingdom something is always eating something. I’m not sure anyone knows what would happen if a portion of that cycle goes missing.
Without the various species of animals, we wouldn’t have many of the things we have today, especially in Modern Medicine. By limiting the genepools we have less to work with, to experiment with.
I would like to know where you get your facts from. I would also like to know how you came to the conclusion that melting ice is killing beluca whales and narwhal. How are the oceans warming if the ice caps are melting? The answer to that is, They aren’t. The oceans are actually cooling. You misinturpret Global warming. Due to the ice age cycle we are at one of the closest points to the sun that the earth inhabits. It is expected that there will be another ice age in 15000 years. The earth is killing off most of its species. This happens because only the strong will survive the long harsh ice age.