Restricting Competitors May Allow Species to Cope with Climate Change

Climate change is impacting ecosystems across the globe. Now, though, it turns out that threatened animals species may be able to cope with their changing environment a bit better if competition from other animals for the same habitats was restricted.

In order to better understand how climate might impact species, they took a look at the Alpine Chamois, a species of mountain goat. More specifically, they examined how domestic sheep influenced the goats' movements.

The researchers looked at how daily variation in temperature affected the altitude at which the goats lived, at times when sheep were either present or absent. In the end, they found that the sheep had a far greater effect on the goats that the predicted effects of future climate change.

"As the global climate warms, many animals are moving to higher latitudes and altitudes, where it is cooler," said Stephen Willis, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Many mammals in mountain environments also respond to daily changes in temperature by moving to different altitudes, following their preferred temperature range and moving to higher altitudes to avoid the midday heat. The presence of flocks of sheep-which compete with Chamois for food-disturbed the normal behavioral patterns of Chamois, forcing them to much higher elevations than they would normally use."

The findings reveal that competition has a much larger role to play in species' survival than previously thought. While climate does have an impact, it turns out that species interactions have a much greater one. In addition, the study shows that a species' ability to adjust their behaviors could make them far more adaptable to climate change than previously thought.

The findings are published in the journal Global Change Biology.