A team of 21 international researchers have identified potential plants and animal habitat changes by mapping out climate velocities from 50 years of satellite data from 1960 through 2009, and projected for the duration of the 21st century, Live Science reported.
As regional temperatures shift with climate change, many plants and animals will need to relocate to make sure they stay in the range of temperatures they're used to, according to Live Science.
Some species will move towards higher latitudes to stay with cooler temperatures, but for many others, the path will take twists and turns due to differences in the rate at which temperatures change around the world, scientists say, Live Science reported.
"We are taking physical data that we have had for a long time and representing them in a way that is more relevant to other disciplines, like ecology," said co-author Michael Burrows, a researcher at the Scottish Marine Institute, according to Live Science. "This is a relatively simple approach to understanding how climate is going to influence ocean and land systems."
The resulting maps indicate regions likely to experience an influx or exodus of new species, or behave as a corridor or, conversely, a barrier, to migration, Live Science reported.
"For example, because those environments are not adjacent to or directly connected to a warmer place, those species from warmer places won't be able to get there very easily," Burrows told Live Science. "They might still get there in other ways, like on the bottoms of ships, but they won't get there as easily."
Warming waters and changes in regional ocean currents have already caused the long-spined sea urchin, previously only found as far south as southern New South Wales in Australia, to migrate farther south along the eastern Tasmanian coast, according to co-author Elvira Poloczanska, Live Science reported.
The urchins have decimated kelp forests in the region, demonstrating the domino effect that temperature changes can have in regional ecosystems, Live Science reported.
The researchers hope the maps will help conservation biologists predict where certain species will migrate in the future, and help management organizations devise conservation plans accordingly, according to Live Science.
