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in a biological sense butterflies are heavy hitters when it comes to protecting species threatened by climate change.As the world warmed, a butterfly called Edith's checkerspot was the first organism to show a documented range shift,

Edith's checkerspot has been dying out in northern Mexico and doing well in Canada

Parmesan said Tuesday during a break in the conference. It's also dying out at lower elevations and flourishing in the Sierra Nevada's highest elevations.

The first documented evidence of the baffling disappearance of up to 90 per cent of snake colonies in five disparate spots on the globe has “large-scale implications” for humanity, a Canadian expert says.

And the “most obvious cause, intuitively, would be climate change,” biologist Jason Head of the University of Toronto, told the Star.

A recently published study in the journal Biology Letters involving painstaking research in England, Nigeria, Australia, Italy and France discovered eight species in 17 snake populations in those widely different climates that had “declined drastically,” said Dr. Christopher Reading, lead researcher for the study. “In some of the populations, the decline was 70 to 90 per cent,” Reading of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Wallingford, England, told the Star. “This is the first documented evidence that some snake populations have declined. And the fact that it happened at all of the same time, irrespective of geography, indicates there is something at a higher level behind it.”

Bolstered by mild winters and heavy spring rains, the poison ivy creeping across the Chicago landscape this summer is at bumper crop levels.The abundance of poison ivy and other invasive plants proliferating in Illinois and across much of the nation this year is a symptom of a scenario more serious than an itchy red rash, experts say.Elevated CO2 levels in the atmosphere, although destructive to many plant species, are proving a boon for adaptive weeds such as poison ivy, said Lewis Ziska, a federal plant physiologist.

"We are up to our arms in poison ivy this summer," said Ziska, with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md. The higher CO2 levels, he said, also are contributing to an increasing abundance of kudzu, the legendary vine once limited to the South but was discovered lurking in central Illinois and as far north as Canada. Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, said recent studies show that poison ivy is not only more prevalent across the U.S. but more toxic, too. The rise in CO2 levels strengthens an oil in the plant that triggers itchy havoc when it touches the skin, he said. The heavy rains, warmer temperatures and rising CO2 levels that have disturbed plant chemistry also have increased pollen counts, leading to higher rates of asthma and allergies. "It's not an accident we're having this perfect storm," said Epstein. "Pests and pathogens thrive in extreme events, like floods or droughts. We need to stabilize the climate by reducing fossil fuel emissions dramatically." John Masiunas, an associate professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign, said he is unaware of any quantitative data tracking an increase in poison ivy taking root across the state. But, he said, "it makes perfect sense that higher CO2 levels will make these plants more efficient." The plant has "a survivor's ability" to grow in a variety of environments, Masiunas said, adding that climate change is also detrimental to endangered species such as native thistles and orchids that require specific soils and pollinators to thrive. "When climate change occurs … it is poor for these plants and contributes to the extinction of the species," Masiunas said. "When endangered plants are competing in an agricultural ecosystem, they start losing, and plants like poison ivy start doing better."

By collating and analyzing about half a million Secchi observations, plus other direct measurements of algae, the Dalhousie team estimated that phytoplankton levels declined by about 1% of the global average each year from 1899 onward. The data are more reliable for recent decades, translating into a 40% decline in algae since 1950.

The team investigated several factors that could have caused the decline, including wind intensity, cyclical climate changes and sea-surface temperature. "We found that temperature had the best power to explain the changes," said Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie and co-author of the study.

Mike Behrenfeld, an expert on phytoplankton who has read the Nature paper, said it was similar to a 1992 study which also used Secchi data to show a long-term decline in marine algae in the north Pacific. "But this paper covers the globe," said Dr. Behrenfeld of Oregon State University. "And the scientists also took the next step of relating the [algal decline] to sea temperatures."

while weather patterns are some of the most visible indicators of climate change, we are able to look at other patterns in the ecosystem as equally important measurements.  Among these patterns are jellyfish blooms, which are proliferating at an incredible pace. 

There are a number of factors contributing to the increase of jellyfish blooms, most of which are linked to global warming.  Jellyfish are thriving due to warmer and saltier waters as well as an increase in plankton growth.  In addition, overfishing has created a niche for jellyfish to exploit.  In years before predators were consuming much more of the ocean’s nutrients.  Now however, there is less competition leaving more for jellyfish.  This is also the case with agricultural runoff, where jellyfish are able to capitalize on the organisms feeding on the bacteria.  The current trend in climate change shows that the ice cover is melting much later in the spring, spawning more rapid and increased amounts of plankton growth.  There are various theories based on this evidence, but perhaps the strongest supports the idea that increased sunlight is favorable for the plankton.  This is especially true in colder regions such as the Bearing Sea, where scientists and fisherman alike have noticed drastic increases in jellyfish blooms.  But despite recent awareness, population control will only be a reality once the global climate patterns stabilize. For most, summer draughts mean hot days and dry gardens.  For jellyfish, however, it means saltier waters.  As rain becomes less frequent there is less fresh water entering the ocean.  Although it’s not the case with all jellyfish, most will benefit from a higher salt content.  This also relates to other predators and fish species, which are less tolerant of the salt increase and will often move from the coast into deeper, less salty waters.  As the ocean gets warmer and the water level rises, the jellyfish survival rate also goes up.  It creates the right conditions for jellyfish blooms to prosper, which results in a longer span of migration.  Now there are jellyfish species that are being labeled invasive.  Beachgoers have to swim with a new element of caution, unable to know which new species has moved in, and which has left. 

A 2007 study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looked at codfish catch records over four decades. It concluded what fishermen who know this cold-loving fish would have predicted: As the bottom water temperature increased, the probability of catching a cod decreased.

Last year, a federal effort to coordinate research, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, found ocean warming already was forcing a migration of some species.

"The northward shifts we have seen in the area are due in part to climate change. We are starting to see some of the effects of global climate change in our area," said Janet Nye, a NOAA researcher working out of Woods Hole, Mass. She studied historical fish records and found that of 36 northwest Atlantic species, almost half had moved northward in 40 years as water temperatures warmed. She predicted the traditional stocks of cold-water fish are likely to be replaced by croaker and red hake, fish normally found farther south.

SIGHTINGS OF exotic snake pipefish, swarms of jellyfish and an “unprecedented” rise in sea surface temperatures indicate climate change is having a significant effect on Ireland’s marine ecosystems, according to a new report.Swarms of jellyfish, increased wave heights off the southwest coast and a greater variety of warm-water species in Irish waters have also been recorded by the authors of the report published today by the Marine Institute.

The authors noted that increases of sea surface temperature – at a rate of 0.6 degrees a decade – have been recorded since 1994. This is “unprecedented” in the past 150 years, the Marine Institute says.This temperature rise has been linked to an increase in microscopic plants and animals, along with species of jellyfish. The institute says increased numbers of most warm-water fish species have been observed in Irish waters.

Climate change is starving Scotland’s seabirds into a drastic population decline that leaves some species dangerously close to extinction, the RSPB has warned. A major 10-year study by the Westminster Government’s conservation adviser found that the number of common gulls in the UK has fallen by almost half over the last decade. Scarcity of traditional food sources as sea temperatures rise may be forcing them to seek alternatives on land, which may be why residents of some seaside towns have complained that the birds, also called European herring gulls, are becoming more aggressive.

In its report, published today, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) says that over a decade the number of breeding kittiwakes has fallen by 40%, while there has been a 38% decline in fulmars. The biggest drop affects the common gull, however, with a 43% reduction in breeding pairs between 1999 and 2009.

The JNCC’s Population Trends and Causes of Change 2010 report uses UK-wide figures, with no regional breakdown available, but the RSPB said anecdotal evidence in Scotland seemed to confirm an impact north of the border. “Early reports of seabird breeding performances on RSPB Scotland’s coastal reserves unfortunately seem to reflect this worrying trend, with things particularly tough in the Northern Isles,” said Doug Gilbert, the charity’s Scottish reserves ecologist.

Plankton, base of ocean food web, in big decline

Despite their tiny size, plant plankton found in the world's oceans are crucial to much of life on Earth. They are the foundation of the bountiful marine food web, produce half the world's oxygen and suck up harmful carbon dioxide. And they are declining sharply. Worldwide phytoplankton levels are down 40 percent since the 1950s, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The likely cause is global warming, which makes it hard for the plant plankton to get vital nutrients, researchers say. The numbers are both staggering and disturbing, say the Canadian scientists who did the study and a top U.S. government scientist. "It's concerning because phytoplankton is the basic currency for everything going on in the ocean," said Dalhousie University biology professor Boris Worm, a study co-author. "It's almost like a recession ... that has been going on for decades."

Half a million datapoints dating to 1899 show that plant plankton levels in nearly all of the world's oceans started to drop in the 1950s. The biggest changes are in the Arctic, southern and equatorial Atlantic and equatorial Pacific oceans. Only the Indian Ocean is not showing a decline. The study's authors said it's too early to say that plant plankton is on the verge of vanishing. Virginia Burkett, the chief climate change scientist for U.S. Geological Survey, said the plankton numbers are worrisome and show problems that can't be seen just by watching bigger more charismatic species like dolphins or whales. "These tiny species are indicating that large-scale changes in the ocean are affecting the primary productivity of the planet," said Burkett, who wasn't involved in the study.

The new report shows that over 80% of the whitebark pine forests of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana are already dead or dying.

“The red and grey trees littering the western landscape are a testament to the fact that North America’s forests are under assault,” said Louisa Willcox, senior wildlife advocate for NRDC and one of the minds behind a new report on whitebark pine mortality in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. “Climate change is hitting the whitebark pine hard by allowing mountain pine beetles access to previously inhospitable forests at higher elevations.  Whitebark, which grows from roughly 8500 feet up to treeline, has never had to fight off a threat like this, and if we don’t act quickly, we could lose this essential tree species.”

Unfortunately for those dependent wildlife species, such as squirrels, chipmunks, grosbeaks, crossbills, and grizzlies (especially in Yellowstone) as well as other creatures, whitebark pine forests are being decimated throughout their range by an array of threats that have emerged in high-elevation environments, as a result of climate change, particularly now swarming mountain pine beetles, as well as an invasive nonnative disease, blister rust.

Bird migration has also been critically affected by climate change in the last few years. Birds rely on signals from the sun to start their journey back North in the early spring. Unfortunately, the sustenance they rely on to fuel their journey is no longer appearing in conjunction with their flight. Because temperatures have been rising successively, caterpillar larvae have been appearing earlier in the first months of spring: by the time birds make their migration, many of these critical sources of protein and fat have already flown away--either as butterflies or moths. Because birds rely on a fixed signal to begin their journey, it is virtually impossible for them to coordinate their voyage with their food source. A nearly 50% decline in many bird species has been noted in the last few years. Indeed, a 90% decline in populations of Pied Flycatchers in the Netherlands has been attributed to these alternating cues and their consequences.

long-term monitoring has shown that animal communities living at great depth on the seafloor can change radically over remarkably short periods, and that these events are ultimately driven by climate. Such faunal changes are exemplified by the 'Amperima Event' – the sudden mass occurrence of the sea cucumber (holothurian) Amperima rosea recorded on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) situated off the southwest coast of Ireland in the northeast Atlantic. Communities of animals living on the seabed there at depths of nearly 5000 metres have been monitored from 1989 to the present day. A major change occurred in the PAP community between 1996 and 1999 involving a number of animal groups, including sea anemones, segmented worms, sea spiders, sea squirts, brittle stars, and sea cucumbers, all of which increased in abundance. However, the population explosion in the sea cucumber Amperima rosea (hereafter Amperima) was particularly striking – thus the 'Amperima Event'. Before 1996 the sea cucumber was found in only ones or twos. They were very rare. But by 1999, the sea cucumber reached such high densities that if you were able to walk on the deep seafloor, you would have difficulty in avoiding squashing them flat. Dr David Billet and his colleagues showed that the increase abundance and dominance of Amperima occurred over a very wide area, greater than the size of the UK. Changes are also apparent in the abundance of other animals living in the seabed, including the single-celled creatures inhabiting the sediments. The whole deep-sea world had been turned on its head. "What this strongly suggested," says Dr Billett, "is that the 'Amperima Event' did not simply reflect localised, chance changes in the abundances of one or two species. Instead, changes in the whole deep-sea animal community were driven by environmental factors."

"Whether it is the quality or the quality of the organic matter, or both, that matter," says Dr Billett, "it appears that changes in the density of animals such as Amperima are related to phytoplankton productivity in the overlying surface waters, which is affected by climate change."

Global climate change is fundamentally disrupting marine ecosystems, especially in the polar oceans, according to two new reviews of scientific research released Thursday in the journal Science.

Changes in temperature, ocean acidity and volume are affecting species from phytoplankton — the microscopic marine plants at base of the food chain — to polar bears, which may lose 68 percent of their summer habitat by 2100. "Climate change is affecting an enormously wide range of physical and biological aspects of the ocean," said John Bruno, a University of North Carolina marine ecologist and co-author of one of the reviews. "Once you start tweaking temperature, everything changes." Photosynthesis by phytoplankton is down six percent since the 1980s, and the organisms themselves are getting smaller thanks to warmer temperatures, the review noted.

Less plankton means less food for fish, which in turn means less seafood for human consumption. Phytoplankton also absorb carbon dioxide from the air and sequester it at the seafloor when they die and sink to the bottom of the ocean. Fewer phytoplankton could mean more human carbon dioxide emissions stay in the atmosphere, Bruno said, further exacerbating the climate change problem.

Spring did not come for the oaks of Martha's Vineyard. For three years, the residents here watched a stunning outbreak of caterpillars that stripped an oak tree bare in a week, then wafted on gossamer threads to another.  In the denuded branches, scientists see a fingerprint of climate change - and a pattern of things to come. The islanders fought through clouds of drifting filaments with brooms, brushed off the showers of excrement after they walked under trees, and tiptoed through a maze of half-inch worms on the sidewalks. The local newspapers ran pictures of building sides covered with caterpillars, looking like horror-movie outtakes. 

Spring did not come for the oaks of Martha's Vineyard. For three years, the residents here watched a stunning outbreak of caterpillars that stripped an oak tree bare in a week, then wafted on gossamer threads to another. 

In the denuded branches, scientists see a fingerprint of climate change - and a pattern of things to come.

Scientists from the Northwest Territories confirmed that a bear spotted by Inuit hunter David Kuptana on April 8 is a second-generation hybrid. DNA tests made by the NWT Environment and Natural Resources said the animal is a grizzly-polar bear cross breed.

The polar bear features of the animal were its creamy white fur, while its grizzly features were the big head, long claws and a ring of brown hair around its hind. It is being billed as the first recorded second-generation grolar in the area. The department said the grolar was the offspring of a polar/grizzly female with a male grizzly bear.

The cross-breeding of the two species is believed to have been caused by global warming, which have prompted the grizzlies to move to the north, which is polar bear territory. The first sighting of a grolar was in 2006 in Banks Island by an American hunter.

LIBERAL Democrat Fisheries spokesman and MSP for Orkney Liam McArthur is seeking assurances from the Scottish Government that fisheries scientists and others involved in establishing fish quotas do not penalise fishermen for stock reductions caused by climate change. Research by the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership shows climate change is causing some fish species’ distributions to move north, with some stocks having moved as much as 400 km north over the past 30 years.

McArthur said: “The reports from fishermen of increasing stocks of cod in the northern North Sea appear compatible with the results of this research. Indeed, the findings of this report further highlight how complex this issue really is.

Researchers discovered that while some types of bamboo reduced in range due to global warming, others actually increased.

"We have seen a decrease in crane numbers due to a lack of tubers called nang, which the crane feed upon, which were destroyed by floods last year.

Add this one to the year’s lengthening list of natural disasters — a bumper crop of poison ivy. It’s flourishing this summer, which, The Wall Street Journal says, “is shaping up to be one of its most virulent and unpredictable seasons.”

Long term, it seems that poison ivy responds positively to global warming, especially the increase in carbon dioxide, which produces bigger and more irritating plants.