While pandas have received a lot of attention with respect to conservation efforts and public awareness of their endangered status, we are not specifically aware of how climate change is expected to affect the pandas and their habitat. Scientists from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have conducted research on the most common species of bamboo in the panda habitat of northwestern China, and they predict that this species of bamboo will essentially be eliminated by the end of the 21st century due to climate change.
Climate change will have especially detrimental effects on bamboo because its reproduction cycle occurs every 30-35 years, making it a very unstable diet source. The collaborating scientists from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied the panda habitat in the Qinling Mountains of China and determined that this area contains about 17% of the remaining wild pandas. Both the geographic and genetic isolation of this panda population are cause for increased conservation efforts for this panda habitat. Bamboo is not just an important food source for pandas but is also an important resource for other endangered species such as the ploughshare tortoise and the purple-winged ground-dove.
Scientific data is needed to continue conservation research and management for panda habitat, and to predict what kind of management is required in the future due to the changing climate. The success of conservation efforts for the pandas will depend on their ability to adapt to both climate change and further human development.
Source: ScienceDaily
