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05/31/2008: "Tens of thousands more Arctic species may soon be listed as "endangered""

As a result, the IUCN is working on a second way of assessing the future threat to species because of climate change. "We are working with life history traits - if a species has very specific requirements, how will those be affected by climate change?" says Foden.

She and her colleagues have identified 84 traits - such as migration timing and a requirement for certain temperatures - that could make a species vulnerable. They are now engaged in a mammoth project to assess all birds, amphibians and warm water corals - 16,800 species in total - for these traits. They will present their preliminary findings in October at the World Conservation Congress.

Once the species are listed, there remains the difficult issue of what can be done to protect them. Responding to the threat of climate change is quite different to responding to illegal poaching, they say.

"We can eliminate all other threats that might be operating on the species, such as hunting and habitat destruction," says Foden. "This will give the species the best chance of surviving climate change. Listing species on global and federal threatened species lists will help in this regard."

[ Positive moves - hopefully they don't come too late. ]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14029-should-all-arctic-species-be-redlisted.html?feedId=online-news_rss20