The small, often brightly coloured honeycreepers tend to survive at higher altitudes. Higher elevations are also cooler, and less attractive to mosquitoes.

As the world warms, mosquitoes move into higher elevations - and there is nowhere for the honeycreepers to escape to. The birds are particularly susceptible to avian malaria. Last year, a scientific study noted that the prevalence of avian malaria has more than doubled since the 1990s in the upper regions of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Conservationists fear that two honeycreepers, the 'akikiki and the 'akeke'e , will fall extinct in the next decade.

9Baird's

sandpiper

The Baird's sandpiper (Calidrisbairdii) is not likely to become extinct any time soon. It is still listed as a species of "least concern" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. But the challenge posed by climate change for this elegant little wading bird is one experienced by many other species.

Increasing temperates in the high Arctic are encouraging shore birds such as the Baird's sandpiper to breed earlier in the season. This means that more chicks are emerging before the peak abundance of the insects that they feed own. Studies show that chicks raised outside the period of peak abundance grow much more slowly, which means they are less likely to survive into adulthood.

8Giant mountain lobelia

Increasing temperatures are posing a challenge for all kinds of montane species. They may retreat to higher altitudes but, eventually, they will run out of mountain. The 21st-century climate warming is likely to exceed 2C in many scenarios, the rate of temperature increase in mountainous areas is predicted to be much higher - possibly three times the increase recorded over the 20th century.

The giant mountain lobelia (Lobelia rhynchopetalum) is a native of Ethiopia, a spectacular-looking tropical alpine plant that resembles a spiky tropical palm but then shoots up a huge woolly protuberance, sometimes more than 10 metres tall. Implausibly large in arid mountainous terrain, the family of lobelia plants remarkably predate the formation of tall mountains in eastern Africa, to which they've adapted.

They are not finding it so easy to adapt to rapid anthropogenic climate change. A scientific study of the plant's prospects last year concluded it "will suffer massive reduction in range" under warmer

climes, with just 3.4 per cent of its habitat still suitable by 2080. By then, it is predicted to be confined to just four suitable mountain-top habitats "which may be too small to sustain viable populations".

There's a further problem. As alpine species such as the giant mountain lobelia are confined to isolated mountaintops, their genetic diversity will narrow dramatically - by 82 per cent - further increasing the likelihood of extinction.

7Bramble Cay melomys

For some species, extinction is

quite literally caused by storms and rising seas. The Bramble Cay melomys (Melomysrubicola), or mosaic-tailed rat, lived the unobtrusive life of a small rodent in the eastern Torres Strait. It was first discovered - and killed - on the tiny vegetated coral island of Bramble Cay by Europeans in 1845. Several hundred lived there as recently as 1978. But the highest point of Bramble Cay is three

metres above sea level and around the Torres Strait the sea level rose at almost twice the global average rate between 1993 and 2014. Since 1998, the area of Bramble Cay above high tide has shrunk from 4 hectares to 2.5 hectares. The melomys has lost 97 per cent of its habitat and was last seen by a fisherman in 2009. Scientists laid traps in 2011 and twice in 2014 to catch the little rodent and start a captive breeding programme to save it from extinction. But they were too late: they couldn't find any trace of the animal. There's a small chance an as-yet-undiscovered population may survive in Papua New Guinea but the scientists have judged it is almost certainly extinct.

6Sierra Nevada blue

The Sierra Nevada blue (Polyommatusgolgus) is a small butterfly that is both brilliant blue (the male) and dark black-brown (the female) and is one of four endangered species unique to Spain. It is only found in the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and in another small mountainous area further north.

It has already lost habitat to overgrazing by animals, a ski resort, and the trampling of vegetation by people on roads and footpaths. But its biggest threat is climate change.

Drought, increased temperatures and reduced snow coverage are set to displace the species to higher areas where the habitat might not be suitable. For the populations living on the highest areas of the mountains these changes would mean their extinction.(c) Guardian News & Media Ltd, 2017