WASHINGTON -- Global warming increases the chance of disease in plant and animal life, including humans, according to a U.S. study to be released Friday in **** Science **** magazine.

The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis Study comes after two years of looking at disease outbreaks in flora and fauna on land and in the oceans. Researchers examined mechanisms that triggered or influenced the outbreaks.

"What is most surprising is the fact that climate-sensitive outbreaks are happening with so many types of pathogens -- viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites -- as well as in such a wide range of hosts including corals, oysters, terrestrial plants, birds, and humans," said lead author of the study, Drew Harvell of Cornell University.

The study documented examples of viruses, bacteria, and fungi associated with diseases, that developed more rapidly in slightly higher temperatures, as well as the migration pattern of disease carriers such as mosquitoes and ticks in warmer weather.

Longer, balmier summers limit the natural break of winter; the cold temperatures stymieing bacteria growth and temporarily halting parasite migration.

Indigenous Hawaiian birds were cited as becoming rarer due to climate change, with warmer weather allowing mosquitoes to venture higher up mountainsides.

"Today there are no native birds below 4,500 feet," said Andrew Dobson of Princeton University, who worked on the study.

"We have to get serious about global change," said Dobson, citing the U.S. anthrax attacks, and noting how few people knew about infectious diseases. "It's not only going to be a warmer world, it's going to be a sicker world."