Tropical Rainforests

The Wet Tropics in Far North Queensland is the most biologically diverse region in Australia. The rainforests in this region are the oldest remnants surviving on the planet. The wet tropics World Heritage area, declared in 1988, is home to 30% of Australia's marsupials, 60% of its bats, 18% of its birds and 60% of its butterflies.Many species exist in small pockets of limited refugia and are susceptible to small changes in climate. Modelling by rainforest ecologists from James Cook University suggests that a 2 degree temperature rise will condemn many such species to extinction.

The effects of climate change in tropical rainforests are being measured already, the most well known case being the extinction of the Golden Toads of the cloud forests of Costa Rica, where decreased rainfall has caused the species to perish. Predicted temperature rises will be too rapid for the adaptive capacities of many species and could lead to a catastrophic wave of extinctions in the wet tropic regions of Australia and elsewhere.