Saving a Million Species

by Hannah, Lee; Lovejoy, Thomas E.

• ISBN13: 9781597265690
• ISBN10: 1597265691
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-01
• Publisher: Island Pr

Summary

The research paper "Extinction Risk from Climate Change" published in the journal Naturein January 2004 created front-page headlines around the world. The notion that climate change could drive more than a million species to extinction captured both the popular imagination and the attention of policy-makers, and provoked an unprecedented round of scientific critique. Saving a Million Speciesreconsiders the central question of that paper: How many species may perish as a result of climate change and associated threats? Leaders from a range of disciplines synthesize the literature, refine the original estimates, and elaborate the conservation and policy implications. The book: *examines the initial extinction risk estimates of the original paper, subsequent critiques, and the media *and policy impact of this unique study *presents evidence of extinctions from climate change from different time frames in the past *explores extinctions documented in the contemporary record *sets forth new risk estimates for future climate change *considers the conservation and policy implications of the estimates. Saving a Million Speciesoffers a clear explanation of the science behind the headline-grabbing estimates for conservationists, researchers, teachers, students, and policy-makers. It is a critical resource for helping those working to conserve biodiversity take on the rapidly advancing and evolving global stressor of climate change-the most important issue in conservation biology today, and the one for which we are least prepared.

Author Biography

Lee Hannah is Senior Researcher in Climate Change Biology at Conservation International and Adjunct Professor in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Are a Million Species at Risk?	p. 3
First Estimates of Extinction Risk from Climate Change	p. 11
Climate Change, Extinction Risk, and Public Policy	p. 29
Refining First Estimates	p. 39
Refining Risk Estimates Using Models	p. 41
The Use and Misuse of Species-Area Relationships in Predicting Climate-Driven Extinction	p. 73
Current Extinctions	p. 87
First Extinctions on Land	p. 89
Global Warming and Widespread Coral Mortality: Evidence of First Coral Reef Extinctions	p. 103
Extinction Risk at High Latitudes	p. 121
Evidence from the Past	p. 139
Extinctions in Deep Time	p. 141
Terrestrial Ecosystem Response to Climate Change during the Paleogene	p. 157
Quaternary Extinctions and Their Link to Climate Change	p. 179
Quaternary Tropical Plant Extinction: A Paleoecological Perspective from the Neotropics	p. 199
Predicting Future Extinctions	p. 215
Every Species Is an Insect (or Nearly So): On Insects, Climate Change, Extinction, and the Biological Unknown	p. 217
Extinction Risk from Climate Change in Tropical Forests	p. 239
Coral Reefs, Climate Change, and Mass Extinction	p. 261
Extinction Risk in a Changing Ocean	p. 285
Climate Change and Freshwarer Fauna Extinction Risk	p. 309
Climate Change Impacts on Species Interactions: Assessing the Threat of Cascading Extinctions	p. 337
Conservation Implications	p. 361
Strategies for Reducing Extinction Risk under a Changing Climate	p. 363
Saving a Million Species	p. 389
Contributors	p. 395
Index	p. 407
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