Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 06 February 2011

The aggressive wolverine may not be powerful enough to survive climate change in the contiguous United States, new research concludes.

It's highly uncertain whether wolverines will continue to survive.

Wolverine habitat in the northwestern United States is likely to warm dramatically if society continues to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, according to new computer model simulations carried out at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

“The researchers have combined regional-scale climate projections with knowledge of a single species and its unique habitat to examine its vulnerability to a changing climate,” says Sarah Ruth, program director in NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences, which funds NCAR.

“This study is an example of how targeted climate predictions can produce new insights that could help us reduce the impact of future climate change on delicate ecosystems.”

Climate change is likely to imperil the wolverine in two ways: reducing or eliminating the springtime snow cover that wolverines rely on for raising their young, and increasing August temperatures well beyond what the species may be able to tolerate.

“Species that depend on snow cover for their survival are likely to be very vulnerable to climate change,” says NCAR scientist Synte Peacock, the lead author of a paper reporting the study’s results.

“It’s highly uncertain whether wolverines will continue to survive in the lower 48, given the changes that are likely to take place there.” Continue reading Wolverines may not survive climate change