Posted on 10/18/2011 4:45:40 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
(Reuters) - Plants and animals are shrinking because of warmer temperatures and lack of water, researchers said on Monday, warning it could have profound implications for food production in years ahead.
"The worst-case scenarios ... are that food crops and animals will shrink enough to have real implications for food security," Assistant Professor David Bickford, of the National University of Singapore's biological sciences department, said.
Bickford and colleague Jennifer Sheridan trawled through fossil records and dozens of studies which showed that many species of plants and creatures such as spiders, beetles, bees, ants and cicadas have shrunk over time in relation to climate change.
They cited an experiment showing how shoots and fruit are 3 to 17 percent smaller for every degree Celsius of warming in a variety of plants.
Each degree of warming also reduces by 0.5 to 4 percent the body size of marine invertebrates and 6 to 22 percent of fish.
"Survival of small individuals can increase with warmer temperatures, and drought conditions can lead to smaller offspring, leading to smaller average size," they wrote in their paper which was published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, on Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
So they adapt. What’s the problem?
Let's say we accept the idea that man-made global warming is real and that temperatures have risen by 1 degree Celsius. Seriously, 1 C, and we see all these environmental changes?
Will women shrink? It makes other “stuff” look even bigger! If ya know what I’m sayin’!
WTF does that even mean? All of them? Some selected species in some corners of the world? Those who control the language control the debate.
Good. I hope the friggin ants disappear altogether.
eggszactly
This is such horse hockey. It was MUCH warne during the time of the dinosaurs - and 3 foot long dragon flies...
I reckon it beats ants growing to giant proportions and preying on the population; ala Them!
Ants, beetles, etc. aren’t the only thing that has shrunken over time!
You can fill in the blanks.
My trees are getting bigger. Wrong on all accounts!
. . . was looking for the Planet Gore ping. Any bad turn in the weather gets blamed on “climate change” as usual . . .
The other day a BBC article said polar bears are shrinking. I’m waiting for one in chihuahua-size. Would that be cool or what?
And CO2 is a plant growth stimulator, but they never report that. I wonder why . . . ?
I’m holding out for the mini-giraffe.
This is how we got pygmies.
Just one minor point of order. There has been no statistically significant global warming during the past ten years.
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