综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語(yǔ)Fran?ais
Home / World

Tasmanian devil pays for climate change

By Xinhua in Canberra | China Daily | Updated: 2014-11-06 07:57

Climate change, not disease or hunting, could be the main cause of a decline in the numbers of Tasmanian devils, according to researchers in Australia.

The team from the University of Tasmania discovered that the devils' low genetic diversity and previous population declines were driven by climate change rather than hunting or a rampant facial tumor disease, as previously thought.

Their study, which examined the largest ever set of genetic data for Tasmanian devils, found that the marsupials have lived with low genetic diversity for thousands of years, having suffered two huge population declines that wiped out around 80 percent of animals in the past 50,000 years.

Those events coincided with two periods of arid climate patterns, 20,000 and 3,000 years ago, when the population of the devils' prey - mainly wallabies and small mammalswould have been adversely affected.

This led to inbreeding and low genetic diversity among the devils, making them unable to adapt rapidly.

"It seems like the devils have survived for thousands of years with low genetic diversity," said the study's lead author, Anna Bruniche-Olsen, from the University of Tasmania.

"Having a low genetic diversity for a species means that they are much more prone to disease, so if a disease impacts the population, because they are all genetically very similar, they are quite prone to being wiped out."

As a top predator, Tasmanian devils are reliant on the populations and survival of their prey.

A decline in the numbers of wallaby and small mammals due to more arid conditions would have had a dramatic effect on the devil population, the researchers said.

That, combined with a diminished ability to combat disease, has researchers concerned that global climate change will be the final nail in the coffin for the wild population.

"It seems like climate is the main driver," Bruniche-Olsen said.

"Given that all the climate predictions for the future point toward Australia having a more arid climate again, I think it has big implications for devils."

The devils, the world's largest carnivorous marsupials, are restricted to the small island of Tasmania, south of mainland Australia, despite being widespread on the continent up until a few thousand years ago.

(China Daily 11/06/2014 page11)

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
定州市| 宁河县| 富宁县| 平武县| 博乐市| 佛山市| 梁山县| 瑞昌市| 乳源| 永州市| 康保县| 太白县| 讷河市| 南岸区| 平罗县| 房产| 吉林省| 文登市| 凤山县| 武隆县| 小金县| 新干县| 凌源市| 林口县| 固安县| 平罗县| 延津县| 启东市| 沐川县| 科尔| 永嘉县| 循化| 宁南县| 肥乡县| 维西| 东方市| 项城市| 岳阳县| 阿克陶县| 松滋市| 二手房|