Scientists have said the Europe will be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, because it contains the smallest amount of 'refugia' of any global region. Refugia are areas of habitat supporting a variety of flora and fauna where environmental conditions will remain constant in the face of change.

Research conducted to identify areas of the Earth that are high priorities for conservation in the face of climate change has shown that only four percent of Europe's land area can be considered 'refugia.' The refugia that do exist in Europe are mostly in Scandinavia and Scotland.

The biggest refugia worldwide are in the Amazon, the Congo basin, the boreal forests of Russia, the Artic and the Australian outback.

Scientists from the University of Southampton said that, though there are many global regions which currently have areas of rich biological diversity, a phenomenon known as 'biome shift' – where the natural vegetation of an area shifts due to climatic change – are likely to affect these regions.

Dr Felix Eigenbrod, who conducted the study, working with international partners, said that in landscapes such as Europe's, which are dominated by human activity, large-scale wilderness effectively no longer exists. He said efforts should still be put into conserving these "finer scale" refugia.  

Dr Eigenbrod added, "Our research will help governments to better understand where to invest resources to safeguard wild plants and animals in the face of the combined threats of habitat destruction and climate change."

Past research has shown that human-driven climate change has already shifted vegetation at the biome level upslope and towards the Poles or the Equator. For agriculture this means that, while production of certain crops will shift to higher latitudes, pests and diseases will follow, bringing fresh problems into new areas.    

A biome is the highest level of ecological system – rainforests, woodlands, grasslands, temperate forest, alpine and tundra – so a change in climate that can shift the location of a biome is a very substantial force, said Eigenbrod. When a biome shifts, plants and wildlife that cannot cope may shift or disappear locally. When a road, town, or clear-cutting then destroys parts of the natural habitat, the ecosystem becomes even more vulnerable.