Warming climate is changing life on global scale, says new study

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Temperatures over Asia 1970-2004. Credit: Nature
Temperatures over Asia, 1970-2004. Credit: Nature

A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over many regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans’ plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities. The study appears in the May 15 issue of the leading scientific journal Nature.


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All News summaries for May 14, 2008

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