Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Mar 7;270(1514):467-73.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2002.2246.

Climate change and habitat destruction: a deadly anthropogenic cocktail

Affiliations

Climate change and habitat destruction: a deadly anthropogenic cocktail

J M J Travis. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Climate change and habitat destruction are two of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. Lattice models have been used to investigate how hypothetical species with different characteristics respond to habitat loss. The main result shows that a sharp threshold in habitat availability exists below which a species rapidly becomes extinct. Here, a similar modelling approach is taken to establish what determines how species respond to climate change. A similar threshold exists for the rate of climate change as has been observed for habitat loss-patch occupancy remains high up to a critical rate of climate change, beyond which species extinction becomes likely. Habitat specialists, especially those of relatively poor colonizing ability are least able to keep pace with climate change. The interaction between climate change and habitat loss might be disastrous. During climate change, the habitat threshold occurs sooner. Similarly, species suffer more from climate change in a fragmented habitat.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. J Theor Biol. 2002 Mar 7;215(1):95-108 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 2001 Nov 1;414(6859):65-9 - PubMed
    1. J Theor Biol. 1998 Aug 7;193(3):445-463 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources