Climate change could negatively impact the relationship between predator and prey relationships, according to a UBC Okanagan study.
UBC mathematics researcher Rebecca Tyson studied the relationship between the predatory great horned owl and its prey, the snowshoe hare, and found that warming temperatures could drive the hare, and ultimately the owl, into extinction.
"It looks as though just by increasing the length of the summer relative to the lengths of the winter, that a previously stable predator-prey relationship could become unstable - driving one species extinct," she told host Audrey McKinnon on CBC's Radio West.
"They can't coexist if the summer is too long," she said.
According to Tyson, in the boreal forests great horned owls feed heavily on snowshoe hares in both the summer and winter.
"The hare is considered a keystone species because it's the biggest meal up there, especially in the wintertime." she said.
But if the length of the summer increases, the owls could drive the hare population to near extinction, meaning that animals that depend on hares throughout the wintertime - when food is much more scarce - would be extremely vulnerable.
"The great horned owl population wouldn't make it through the winter," she said. "And there are several populations in the North that depend on the hare."
Other species, like the lynx, would also be vulnerable if the hare population collapses in the region, said Tyson.
"There's a big web involved that eventually needs to be looked at," she said.
While the population shift would take time, Tyson says it would require human intervention to keep the populations healthy.
"It looks as though climate change is happening so quickly that the more complex species can't evolve fast enough," she said.