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Climate change could drive mammal extinction in Brazil’s Caatinga, study warns

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Even if everything goes well and the targets set by the Paris Agreement are met, average temperatures are expected to rise by 2.7° Celsius (4.86° Fahrenheit) this century, according to the United Nations, with the dry season extending for 21 more consecutive rainless days. As expected, this will have drastic consequences for the climate and living beings in all biomes on the planet. It could be catastrophic for the Caatinga, for example, which covers 850,000 square kilometers (328,000 square miles) in Brazil’s Northeast region. According to a study conducted by researchers from Campinas State University (Unicamp) and the federal universities of Minas Gerais and Paraíba and recently published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology, 91.6% of terrestrial mammal communities in the Caatinga will lose species, with 87% of them being deprived of their habitats by 2060. Small mammals — such as the agile gracile opossum (Gracilinanus agilis) and the white-eared opossum (Didelphis albiventris) — which account for 54% of the species of Caatinga mammals, will suffer the strongest impacts. To conduct the study, the researchers relied on forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to biologist Mário Ribeiro de Moura from Unicamp’s Biology Institute, who coordinated the work, human-induced climate change has intensified adverse socioeconomic, environmental and biodiversity impacts, changing rainfall patterns and increasing average global temperatures. Desertified area in the municipality of Uauá, in Bahia’s hinterland. Image by Xavier Bartaburu. “Arid zones are particularly at risk, with projections suggesting that they will become hotter, drier…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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