India, July 6 -- Climate change is causing more local extinctions among temperate species than tropical ones, challenging earlier expectations that tropical biodiversity would be more vulnerable.

A new Nature Climate Change study found climate-linked local extinctions in 49% of temperate species surveyed, compared with 33% of tropical species.

Researchers analysed 5,151 plant and animal species across 39,157 sites in terrestrial, marine and freshwater habitats.

The study found that range shifts into cooler areas are not compensating for local losses, meaning many species are losing populations faster than they are gaining new ones.

Climate change is causing more local extinctions among temperate species of plants and animals than trop...