Up to 36 per cent of animal habitats on land could be exposed to multiple extreme climate events by 2085, according to a new international study.

A Simon Fraser University researcher was part of an international team that used climate impact modelling to project how much of the planet’s land animals’ habitat would experience multiple extreme heat waves, wildfires, droughts or river floods under low- to high-emissions scenarios over the next 60 years.

“We were looking at what percentage of amphibian, bird, mammal and reptile land habitats would experience repeated extreme events such as back-to-back heat waves or a heat wave followed by a wildfire,” says Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, a contributing author of the study.