Is it a sign of the end? Scientists report that mass animal deaths have rapidly increased

Fish, birds and even larger animals are at risk

A new study has exposed an alarming trend which poses a grave threat to the entire world.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Over the last several decades, mass die-offs of animals have increased in frequency, and are being seen in more populations. These events often kill more than 90 percent of a particular animal speices, and are most common among birds, fish and marine invertebrates.

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While these events are rare and usually only harm a single population of animals, the damage can be immense and even effect other animals in the food chain.

What causes these die-offs? About one-fifth of these cases are tied with humans in some manner, usually environmental contamination; climate and other discernible natural phenomena such as diseases are also to blame in some of these events, but a vast number of these cases have no obvious reason.

Scientist also admit that more accurate reporting of these events may account for a portion of the increases, but not enough to dismiss an upward trend.

The most recent study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academe of Sciences and was conducted by three universities in the United States, the University of San Diego, Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley.

"This is the first attempt to quantify patterns in the frequency, magnitude and cause of such mass kill events," said the study's senior author, Dr. Stephanie Carlson, an associate professor at UC Berkeley.

The study started by looking at some studies documenting die-offs from the 1800s, but primarily focused on 1940 to the present.

"The catastrophic nature of sudden, mass die-offs of animal populations inherently captures human attention," said Carlson.

"In our studies, we have come across mass kills of federal fish species during the summer drought season as small streams dry up."

Mass die-off events have increased by about one event per year over the 70 years that researchers looked at.

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"While this might not seem like much, one additional mass mortality event per year over 70 years translates into a considerable increase in the number of these events being reported each year," said the study's co-lead author, Dr. Adam Siepielski, an assistant professor at the University of San Diego.

"Going from one event to 70 each year is a substantial increase, especially given the increased magnitudes of mass mortality events for some of these organisms."

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