A third of all flora and fauna will become extinct if global warming continues unchecked, researchers warn.
Scientists say that the impact of climate change has been underestimated, and while species as a whole will survive, variations within them will die out.
The team, from the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, says that by 2080 more than 80 per cent of genetic diversity within certain species will disappear.
Most models on the effects of climate change on flora and fauna focus on species as a whole, but diversity within a species has not been taken into account.
Dr Carsten Nowak investigated nine aquatic insect species in streams around central and northern Europe. If climate change progresses as predicted, they will be pushed back to a few small areas in Scandinavia and the Alps, a computer model suggests.
A rise of two degrees would see at least one species wiped out, and a rise of four degrees at least two. But because of the extinction of local populations, genetic diversity would be much more adversely affected, with as many as 84 per cent of genetic variants dying out by 2080.
Scientists say that the impact of climate change has been underestimated, and while species as a whole will survive, variations within them will die out.
The team, from the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, says that by 2080 more than 80 per cent of genetic diversity within certain species will disappear.
Most models on the effects of climate change on flora and fauna focus on species as a whole, but diversity within a species has not been taken into account.
Dr Carsten Nowak investigated nine aquatic insect species in streams around central and northern Europe. If climate change progresses as predicted, they will be pushed back to a few small areas in Scandinavia and the Alps, a computer model suggests.
A rise of two degrees would see at least one species wiped out, and a rise of four degrees at least two. But because of the extinction of local populations, genetic diversity would be much more adversely affected, with as many as 84 per cent of genetic variants dying out by 2080.
