Nights are warming at a faster rate than daytime temperatures across vast swaths of the world, which could affect weather patterns and make it difficult to adapt to climate change report the journal Global Change Biology.

Scientists say that the asymmetry in warming between night and day has consequences for plants and wildlife, with the potential to change the way energy is consumed in markets.

"Species that are only active at night or during the day will be particularly affected," said lead author Daniel Cox of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the UK’s Exeter University.

More than half of the earth's surface had nights whose temperature increased an average of more than 0.25 ° C above daytime temperatures in the last three decades.

Areas most affected by warmer nights show higher rates of cloud cover, humidity, and precipitation. Fewer clouds and droughts characterized patterns in places where daytime temperatures exceeded nighttime ones.

"Warmer nights erode the night's ability to act as a 'heat shelter' where organisms can recover from heat stress during the day," the report says.