The Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution in the USA have unveiled a study looking at the likely impact of the spread of global warming on the survival of individual species of animals and plants (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/23/global-warming-spreading-quarter-mile-year). They estimate that the average impact of warming spreads at around quarter of a mile per year; so species will have to move faster than this, if they are to survive (pretty obviously, movement is harder for some species than others). Their studies also suggest that species in mountainous areas (where the velocity of the 'wave' of global warming spread is slower) are much less vulnerable than counterparts from flat flooded grasslands, mangroves and deserts. The study also maintains that most protected areas for important organisms are too small and fragmented to easily accommodate the necessary movements.
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