News

Yosemite’s Alpine Chipmunks Take Genetic Hit from Climate Change

28.03.2012

Global warming has forced alpine chipmunks in Yosemite to higher ground, prompting a startling decline in the species’ genetic diversity, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The novel study, recently appeared in the online publication of the journal Nature Climate Change, also shows that the genetic erosion occurred in the relatively short span of 90 years, highlighting the rapid threat changing climate can pose to a species. With low genetic diversity a species can be more vulnerable to the effects of inbreeding, disease and other major problems for species survival. “Climate change is implicated as the cause of geographic shifts observed among birds, small mammals and plants, but this new work shows that, particularly for mountain species like the alpine chipmunk, such shifts can result in increasingly fragmented and genetically impoverished populations,” said study lead author Emily Rubidge. “Under continued warming, the alpine chipmunk could be on the trajectory towards becoming threatened or even extinct.”

Photo: Chipmunks - CC Dawn Huczek