News
The Plucky Puffin, Endangered Yet Coping: Scientists Link Emergence of a Hybrid Subspecies to Climate Change
Studying puffin populations on three Norwegian islands, scientists have uncovered the first evidence to connect a large-scale hybridization to 20th-century warming trends. Yet a serious decline in the birds’’ genetic diversity does not bode well for their future.
By Lydia Larsen
The brisk increase in warming rates in the Arctic is bringing rapid shifts in range for plants and animals across the region’s tree of life. Researchers say those changes can lead species that normally wouldn’t encounter each other to interbreed, creating new hybrid populations.
Related Knowledge Center: Biodiversity and wildlife
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The impact of climate change on wildlife and the supporting ecosystem.