Global warming is forcing animals to relocate to colder regions in the Earth’s poles, says study

Climate change has taken a huge toll on the Earth’s environment. It has caused a rise in sea levels and is the reason behind many disasters like cyclones and hurricanes, among others. Now, a new study has revealed that global warming is causing animals to migrate to Earth's poles.

Researchers, who carried out the study, made a database on habitat shifts known as BioShifts, reported International Business Times. The findings of the research were originally published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. 

Land animals are migrating slower than those of marine animals, at a pace of 1.8 metres a year.[/caption]The data recorded by the researchers reveal more than 12,000 different species of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria shifted habitat.

As per the research, amphibians are migrating towards Earth's poles at an average rate of 12 metres a year. Reptiles are shifting location at a speed of 6.5 metres a year.

The rate of movement of marine animals is much faster than that of land animals, at a speed of six km a year, while the land animals are migrating at a slower pace around 1.8 metres a year.

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The researchers say that marine species are more vulnerable to rise in temperature as water is a better conductor of heat than air while explaining the huge difference between the rate of movement of the two animals.

Similarly, a study published in Current Biology revealed that ocean species are shifting towards poles. It also shows concentrations of marine animal populations have been shifting away from the equator and toward the poles during the course of the past century due to rising global temperature.