The study, published in Science, re-examined more than 100 previous studies, covering nearly 1,400 species. Although there was significant variation in how far individual species had
shifted over time, there was a clear trend. On average, species had migrated uphill at a rate of 11 metres per decade and moved away from the equator – to cooler, higher latitudes – at 16 kilometres per decade.

Professor Chris Thomas of the University of York, one of the scientists involved in the study, said that there appears to be ‘unequivocal evidence that climate change is the cause of the mass movement. It’s just a phenomenal rate of movement of the whole of biological life away from the equator towards the poles. How do we know it’s related to climate change? Well, partly because there is no other reasonable explanation for why everything should be moving to higher elevations and to higher latitudes, but also because we find the rate of movement is greater in the regions that have experienced the most warming.’

The scientists said that the migration has been taking place for 40 years, and is likely to continue for at least the rest of the century.          

Kara Moses
October 2011