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Akikiki
Photograph by Dean Conger, National Geographic Stock
December 11, 2009--Already dangerously rare, Hawaii's akikiki is one of ten already endangered U.S. species that are under added threat from global warming, according to a December 2009 report by the Endangered Species Coalition, an advocacy network based in Washington, D.C.
"Global warming is like a bulldozer shoving species, already on the brink of extinction, perilously closer to the edge of existence," said Leda Huta, the coalition's executive director, in a statement.
For the akikiki--listed as critically endangered by the international Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)--the edge is closer than for most species, as it lives on only the island of Kauai. The bird was once common in the uplands, where it was largely left alone while many lowland forests became cane fields and golf courses.
But as global warming heats up mountain habitats--home to roughly 20 percent of all species, according to Duke University conservation ecologist Stuart Pimm--plants and animals will be forced upward into ever shrinking space until they run out of room.
"There is a big group of species that are going to have their ranges shrunk by global warming," said Pimm, who was not involved in the new report.
"And the thing that worries me a great deal is that, from what I can see, global warming is going to kill off a different set of species than those killed off by habitat destruction. It's going to be a group of species that up to now have done reasonably well at the hands of human intervention.
--Brian Handwerk
December 11, 2009
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Elkhorn Coral
Photograph by Steve Raymer, National Geographic Stock
Listed as critically endangered by IUCN, elkhorn coral once formed the backbone of many Caribbean coral reefs. But over the past 30 years these corals they have declined by 90 percent. Warm ocean temperatures stress the corals, causing them to eject their energy-providing, color-infusing algae in an often fatal "bleaching" process.
As corals decline, they take much of the local life with them.
"Reefs are where the greatest biodiversity is in the oceans," Duke University's Pimm explained. "That is the major worry for oceanic biodiversity, and it's something that extends far beyond [U.S.] national borders across the entirety of the world's tropical oceans."December 11, 2009
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Bull Trout
Photograph by Guido Rahr III, AP
The bull trout, technically not a true trout but a char, chills in some of North America's coldest freshwater bodies. Classified as vulnerable by IUCN, the these Rocky Mountain and U.S. Pacific Northwest residents require even summer water temperatures to remain below 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.5 Celsius). And because some migrate from lakes back into smaller streams to spawn, bulls also need large, interconnected, unobstructed waterways.
Climate change and shifting snowfall patterns may make many U.S. western waters lower, slower, and warmer--meaning far fewer places where the beleaguered bull can survive.
Because the bull trout likes its water not just cold but very clean, the fish serves as a canary in a coalmine for overall watershed health, so the fish's current troubles have many conservationists concerned.December 11, 2009
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Canada Lynx
Photograph by Amy Toensing, National Geographic Stock
The Canada lynx--classified as "threatened" in the contiguous United States under the Endangered Species Act--thrives in cold, snowy locales, where their snowshoe-like paws give the cats a crucial advantage in pursuit of prey.
In the U.S. the reclusive cat finds such conditions in northern latitudes and high spruce-fir forests. As with other mountain species, warming ecosystems may push the lynx--already down to about a thousand individuals in the lower 48 states--upward until they simply run out of room.
Populations in Canada have fared far better and are even large enough to withstand carefully regulated trapping in almost all provinces. But U.S. populations are isolated from each other by development--and becoming more so.December 11, 2009
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Pacific Salmonids
Photograph by David McLain, National Geographic Stock
Seven species of salmonids, including the sockeye, Coho, and Chinook salmon species, swim U.S. Pacific coast waters. But these fish are no longer found in much of their historic habitat, and today's populations may be only 10 percent of peak numbers.
Young salmon hatch in inland fresh water, descend to the sea to feed for some two to five years, and then undertake an migration that, in the best cases, eventually returns them to their birth waters to spawn.
Many salmon runs, which can cover thousands of miles, have been disrupted by dams or other human developments, and a once thriving fishing industry has been decimated.
Now global warming is complicating the picture, according to the December 2009 Endangered Species coalition report.
Some western rivers have now passed the 72 degree Fahrenheit (22 Celsius) threshold beyond which salmon can't long survive. The ocean is changing too, and climate-induced shifts, like more acidic waters, may stress salmon during their saltwater years.December 11, 2009
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Leatherback Turtle
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry, National Geographic Stock
The world's largest turtle, the leatherback tips the scales at some 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms), but its young are rather delicate.<br>
Listed as critically endangered by IUCN, the species nests on tropical beaches, where ambient temperatures are critical to reproduction--they determine the sex of offspring. Rising mercury could cause an imbalance between the sexes, or even heat up sands to a point fatal to eggs and embryos.
Warmer waters may actually increase this turtle's global range. But changing ocean chemistry and circulation patterns could also limit the availability of familiar foods.December 11, 2009
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Grizzly Bear
Photograph by Karen Kasmauski, National Geographic Stock
The grizzly, a subspecies of the brown bear, once roamed the Great Plains and across much of western North America. After Europeans began colonizing the New World, though, human expansion gradually pushed lower 48 grizzlies into ever more remote wilderness regions, where perhaps 1,400 survive today.
Most of the grizzly populations in the lower 48 are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, but they remain numerous in Canada and Alaska.
Global warming may cause human-bear conflicts--which often end badly for the bears--to rise, the December 2009 report says. As shifting temperatures shorten hibernation seasons and make natural food sources, such as pine seeds, scarce, the bears may spend more time looking for meals in human territory.December 11, 2009
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Bog Turtle
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Stock
Listed as endangered by IUCN, the tiny bog turtle is the United States' smallest turtle (4.5 inches, or 11.5 centimeters, long), and one of the country's scarcest. As its name suggests the bog turtle has very specific habitat requirements--the wetlands, bogs, and fens of the eastern United States.
Shifting weather patterns are likely to disrupt the delicate ecological balance in which the turtle survives, either by drying out its habitat or by flooding it, the December 2009 Endangered Species Coalition report--adding to existing challenges such as habitat fragmentation caused by housing and roads.December 11, 2009
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Western Prairie Fringed Orchid
Photograph courtesy Welby R. Smith, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Before the United States' agricultural explosion, when tallgrass prairie stretched across the vast expanse of the Great Plains, native plants like the western prairie fringed orchid were far more commonplace.
Now classified as endangered by IUCN, this species survives only in isolated spots, including "depressions left behind when glaciers retreated from the Plains 10,000 years ago. Seasonally filled with rain, the holes become wetlands of the type favored by the orchids.
But many climate models predict erratic rainfall patterns due to global warming, increasing chances of both spring flooding and summer droughts. Each extreme could heavily stress these orchids and allow hardier, invasive plants to displace this American original, the Endangered Species Coalition report says.December 11, 2009
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Flatwoods Salamanders
Photograph courtesy Michael Graziano
The two flatwoods salamander species--both classified as vulnerable by IUCN--live in and around a group of isolated pine forest ponds, perhaps no more than four dozen in all, stretching from northern Florida and Alabama to South Carolina.
The more frequent droughts many climate scientists predict for the future could dry up such ponds and leave the salamanders homeless--stamping out a species with a long lineage that stretches back millions of years, the December 2009 Endangered Species Coalition report says.December 11, 2009
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