CLIMATE CHANGE

 EcoWatch - With the climate crisis leading to more frequent and severe droughts, many wildlife species in the lower 48 United States will suffer from year-long droughts almost five times as frequently in the coming decades as they did historically, according to a new study. Droughts lasting three years could become nearly seven times as frequent, a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service said.

Lack of moisture affects how animals compete with each other for resources, contributes to habitat loss and leads to heat stress and dehydration. “The degree of increased drought exposure for each species in our analysis strongly depends on future greenhouse gas concentrations,” said lead author of the study Dr. Merijn van den Bosch, a postdoctoral researcher at Colorado State University, in the press release. “But even under a lower-concentration scenario, virtually all vertebrates face increased year-long and multi-year droughts in the second half of this century. The implications will depend on the species and the length of the drought.”