Climate Change Impact On Species Goes Beyond Latitude

According to a recent study in Ecological Monographs, predicting the impact of climate change on organisms is much more complicated than simply looking at species northern and southern range limits. Studying the ecologically important California Sea Mussel (Mytilus californianus), Brian Helmuth (University of South Carolina) and colleagues from the University of California - Santa Barbara, the University of British Columbia - Vancouver, and Oregon State University measured body temperatures of this mussel along most of its range, from Washington to Southern California. "Mosaic patterns of thermal stress in the rocky inter-tidal zone: Implications for climate change," suggests that conserving areas based on a few similarities including location, may not be enough, as variations in temperature and other variables can turn what would seem like an ideal and "typical" environment into one that's decidedly different from nearby sites...