A new study showed that climate change could be more dangerous to species inhabiting hills and highlands than creatures on mountains, in a potential reversal of scientific wisdom.
The Science Media Center Taiwan made the comments in a statement about the publication of the study in the Journal of Thermal Biology earlier this month.
Moltrecht’s tree frogs, or Zhangixalus moltrechti, are a bellwether species for the impact of global warming, as their habitats range from mountains to lowlands, it said.
Photo courtesy of study lead author You Jh-yu
Lead author Chuang Ming-feng (莊銘豐), associate professor of life sciences at National Chung Hsing University, said that the team studied tree frog tadpoles in nine habitats of altitudes ranging between 474m and 2,020m.
The team found that tadpoles can adapt to cold depending on their birth habit, but can only tolerate warmth from 38°C to 40°C, imposing an upper limit on their climate resistance, he said.
This suggests the tree frogs have little to no buffer against global warming and face significant extinction risk if authorities fail to secure contiguous safe zones for the species, Chuang said.
Moltrecht’s tree frogs would likely require “heat sanctuaries” and “vertical corridors” to survive climate change, yet both have been compromised by urbanization that fragments habitats, he said.
The study is focused on immediate threats to the tree frog’s short-term survival and makes no assumptions about the species’ ability to evolve adaptations to changing conditions, Chuang said.
The team has not analyzed the species’ genetic makeup or capacity for adaptation over time and cannot explain whether the difference in tadpole resistance to cold is inherent or learned, he said.
Chen I-hsiu (陳怡秀), associate professor of climate change and sustainability at the National Taiwan University, said that species inhabiting highlands can adapt to warming by migrating to even higher altitudes.
However, creatures living in the plains or lowlands would not be able to use that strategy, as cities and towns often bar their way to safety, she said.
The government would need to ensure migration corridors for wildlife are preserved in urban development or risk causing harm to the ecosystem, she said.
Wu Chih-shiun (巫奇勳), associate professor of life science at Chinese Culture University, said the study might have discovered a blind spot in the mechanisms utilized to assess environmental risks.
Current practices assume that each species has a uniform resistance to temperature conditions within the population, but the research indicates that significant differences might exist, he said.
This means large swathes of a species could die off with climate change, with little chance of adapting to shifting conditions, he said.
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