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Climate Change Could Wipe Out a Third of Parasite Species, Study Finds (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled, alternative source): Recently, scientists carried out the first large-scale study of what climate change may do to the world's much-loathed parasites. The team came to a startling conclusion: as many as one in three parasite species may face extinction in the next century. As global warming raises the planet's temperature, the researchers found, many species will lose territory in which to survive. Some of their hosts will be lost, too. Researchers have begun carefully studying the roles that parasites play. They make up the majority of the biomass in some ecosystems, outweighing predators sharing their environments by a factor of 20 to 1. For decades, scientists who studied food webs drew lines between species -- between wildebeest and the grass they grazed on, for example, and between the wildebeest and the lions that ate them. In a major oversight, they didn't factor in the extent to which parasites feed on hosts. As it turns out, as much as 80 percent of the lines in a given food web are links to parasites. They are big players in the food supply.
Some researchers had already investigated the fate of a few parasite species, but Colin J. Carlson, lead author of the study and a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues wanted to get a global view of the impact of climate change. Some kinds won't lose much in a warming world, the study found. For instance, thorny-headed worms are likely to be protected because their hosts, fish and birds, are common and widespread. But other types, such as fleas and tapeworms, may not be able to tolerate much change in temperature; many others infect only hosts that are facing extinction, as well. In all, roughly 30 percent of parasitic species could disappear, Mr. Carlson concluded. The impact of climate change will be as great or greater for these species as for any others studied so far. The study has been published in Science Advances.
Some researchers had already investigated the fate of a few parasite species, but Colin J. Carlson, lead author of the study and a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues wanted to get a global view of the impact of climate change. Some kinds won't lose much in a warming world, the study found. For instance, thorny-headed worms are likely to be protected because their hosts, fish and birds, are common and widespread. But other types, such as fleas and tapeworms, may not be able to tolerate much change in temperature; many others infect only hosts that are facing extinction, as well. In all, roughly 30 percent of parasitic species could disappear, Mr. Carlson concluded. The impact of climate change will be as great or greater for these species as for any others studied so far. The study has been published in Science Advances.
study of what climate change may do to the world's much-loathed parasites. The team came to a startling conclusion: as many as one in three parasite species may face extinction in the next century
So, once chance in three we get rid of the lawyers?
Could be worth it then.
While we're on the topic, a new study just came outhttp://dailycaller.com/2017/06...">fully admitting the models are wrong. They've over-predicted the amount of warming we've seen, compared to reality. Here's a link to the paper.
So it's reasonable to assume that the worst predictions from AGW are not going to happen.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
So this is why liberals are always against climate change. A third of them could die from it!
I agree completely...except for mosquitos and cockroaches, fuck those guys.
I think people are worried that one of the parasites wiped out might be humans.
One of the parasites has already disappeared:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...
You are welcome on my lawn.
"Would you really miss any of them?"
Sure. Tapeworms make great pets - they go where you go, eat what you eat, they're quiet, not messy, etc. Much less work than other pets.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Does this include banksters, politicians and patent trolls?
Sure. Tapeworms make great pets - they go where you go, eat what you eat, they're quiet, not messy, etc.
They can also help you lose weight. Some types of parasitic worms suppress the immune system, and can be used to treat autoimmune disorders, including Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, and asthma.
Fleas? I don't think so.
Maybe specific fleas finely tuned to a particular animal.
But fleas in general?
My experience with climate change over the last 30 years is more bugs, more parasites, more diseases reaching in to my area from down south than used to.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Are climate alarmists so afraid to have an actual discussion that they must denounce anyone who disagrees as a troll?
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
Good joke, of course, but more seriously, we shouldn't be too dismissive of the role played by any major part of the ecosystems, when we don't fully understand the situation. Just as a rather well reported example, there are several indications that the rise in allergies may have a lot to do with the elimination of internal parasites.
Mosquitoes do not make up a substantial part of any creatures diet. Even bats do not depend on mosquitoes. Bats eat beetles, wasps, and moths. Mosquitoes make up less than 1 percent of their total diet.
Studies of areas where mosquitoes have been eliminated show no major ecological disruption. They are seasonal anyway. Mosquitoes (at least the ones that harm us) are a blight on the world and should be eliminated.