INTRODUCTION
Climate change is the shift or abnormal alteration in climate patterns. As the planet warms quickly, mostly due to human activity, climate patterns in regions around the world will fluctuate. Ecosystems and biodiversity will be forced to fluctuate along with the regional climate, and that could harm many species. These climate change impacts are in part due to how we have altered land use. Turning natural areas into cities or agricultural fields not only diminishes biodiversity but can make warming worse by chopping down trees and plants that help cool the planet. Changes in climate can also intensify droughts, decrease water supply, threaten food security, erode and inundate coastlines, and weaken natural resilience infrastructure that humans depend on. All these conditions impede the process of biodiversity conservation.
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING ON BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING
temperature spikes
Some species will be affected physiologically by climate change. There is evidence that some species are physiologically vulnerable to temperature spikes. For example, the green ringtail possum, an endemic species of Queensland’s tropical rainforests, cannot control its body temperature when the ambient temperature rises above 30°C.
coral reefs threatened by climate change
Warmer sea surface temperatures are blamed for an increase in a phenomenon called coral bleaching. This refers to whitening of coral caused when the coral expels their zooxanthellae, a symbiotic photosynthesising alga that lives within the coral tissues and provides it with essential nutrients. The zooxanthellae also give corals their spectacular range of colours. Zooxanthellae are expelled when the coral is under stress from environmental factors such as abnormally high water temperatures and pollution. Since the zooxanthellae help coral in nutrient production, their loss can affect coral growth and make coral more vulnerable to disease. Major bleaching events took place on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998, 2002 and 2006, causing a significant die-off of corals in some locations. Ocean acidification poses yet another challenge for corals because it makes it harder for corals to build their skeletons.
increases in extreme events
Predicted changes in the intensity, frequency and extent of disturbances such as fire, cyclone, drought and flood will place existing vegetation under stress and favour species able to rapidly colonise denuded areas.
In many cases, this will mean the spread of alien ‘weed’ species and significant changes in the distribution and abundance of many indigenous species. Heatwaves may affect the biodiversity of marine ecosystems, as seen in the summer of 2010–11 in southwestern West Australia. Extended periods of warmer sea temperatures resulted in the shut-down of the abalone industry, and the migration of whale sharks and manta rays further south and east than usual.
changes in rainfall patterns
Australia is a dry continent. Its plants and animals are mostly well adapted to drought and have developed a wide range of strategies for coping with the country’s climatic extremes. The limited nature of the environment, however, means that even minor changes in rainfall patterns could have significant impacts on wildlife. Salinity and other environmental problems already threaten the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia’s largest water catchment) and southwest Western Australia. Predicted decreased rainfall and consequent lower river flow in both regions would have a significant impact on aquatic biota. Freshwater wetlands such as the Macquarie Marshes in the central west of New South Wales—and the frogs, water birds, turtles and other marine life dependent on them—are also at risk because of a change in water quality and quantity.
greenhouse gas concentration
Rapidly rising greenhouse gas concentrations are driving ocean systems toward conditions not seen for millions of years, with an associated risk of fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation. Changes in biological function in the ocean caused by anthropogenic climate change go far beyond death, extinctions and habitat loss: fundamental processes are being altered, community assemblages are being reorganised, and ecological surprises are likely.
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON PLANT BIODIVERSITY
Alpine flora at Logan Pass, Glacier National Park, in Montana, United States: Alpine plants are one group expected to be highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change
Environmental conditions play a crucial role in defining the function and distribution of plants, in combination with other factors. Changes in long term ecological conditions that can be collectively coined climate change are known to have had enormous impacts on current plant diversity patterns; further results are expected in the future. It is predicted that climate change will remain one of the significant drivers of biodiversity patterns in the future. Human actions are currently triggering the sixth major mass extinction our Earth has seen, changing the distribution and abundance of many plants.
Because individual plants and therefore species can only function physiologically, and complete their life cycles under specific environmental conditions (ideally within a subset of these), changes to climate are likely to have significant impacts on plants from the level of the individual right through to the level of the ecosystem or biome.
EFFECTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON MARINE BIODIVERSITY
A Warmer Ocean Temperatures
The ocean has absorbed 80 per cent of the heat added to the Earth’s system by climate change.
How it affects biological diversity on Earth:
- Warmer waters cause coral bleaching, which in turn negatively impacts the entire coral
ecosystem.
- Many species will be forced to migrate so they can maintain the temperature conditions they
need for feeding and reproduction.
- Alteration to water temperature can directly impact development, the age of sexual maturity, timing
of spawning, growth, and survival of most cephalopods.
- Decreased upwelling due to warmer waters means that fewer essential nutrients from lower in the water column will make it to the surface of the water. Many important marine ecosystems
almost wholly depend on nutrients from such upwelling areas—for example, aquatic habitats around the Galapagos Islands and along the U.S. coast of California.
How it impacts human welfare: As in all instances, people is directly linked to life around
them. People and many industries around the world rely on the ocean for food and other natural
resources. For instance, upwelling areas provide some of the wealthiest fishing grounds in the world.
Likewise, coral reefs provide habitat for fishing and other protein food sources for people, as well as vital tourism economies in many areas. As warming ocean waters impact life within the ocean, humans and the industries dependent on them are likewise affected.
Melting of the Poles
Rising greenhouse gases causing increased atmospheric warming cause polar ice to melt.
How it affects biological diversity on Earth:
- Production of algae in polar marine environments depends on the presence of sea ice. Algae
are the foundation of most of the Arctic food web and support numerous vital species,
such as Arctic cod. Many other Arctic species, such as seals, beluga whales, narwhals, and polar bears, depend directly or indirectly on the cod. As sea ice diminishes, algae diminish, then cod decline, creating a ripple effect throughout the food web.
- Diminished sea ice results in the loss of vital habitat for seals, walruses, polar bears, penguin,
orcas, minke whales, and another megafauna in the Arctic and Antarctic.
- Sea ice is a critical habitat for Antarctic krill, which are the food source for many seabirds and mammals in the Southern Ocean. In recent years, as sea ice has diminished, Antarctic krill
populations have declined, resulting in declines in the species dependent on the krill.
How it impacts human welfare: The Arctic cod sherry is already affected by diminished sea ice, affecting the users’ livelihoods and availability of cod to consumers. Also closely corresponding to the decrease in Arctic ice coverage, there has been a dramatic increase in polar bears foraging for food in coastal communities and hunting camps—a nuisance and danger to the people living there.
Rising Sea Levels
As seawater warms, it expands. Likewise, as glaciers and polar ice melt, sea levels rise.
How it affects biological diversity on Earth:
- The survival of coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and other critical habitat-forming species
hinges on their ability to move into shallower waters. Slow-growing species are most unlikely to be able to keep pace with the rising sea level.
- Critical coastal habitats—for instance, sea turtle nesting beaches—are lost as the sea level rises. Natural and human-made barriers such as cliffs, sea walls, and coastal developments stand in the way of migrating further inland.
How it impacts human welfare: Although only 2 per cent of the world’s land lies at or below 10 meters of elevation, these areas contain 10 per cent of the world’s human population—634 million people that are directly threatened by sea level rise. The small island nations of the Pacific Ocean are the most immediately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and particularly to sea level rise. For example, nearly 50,000 of the 100,000 people in Kiribati live within 3 meters above sea level. Some Kiribati citizens already are among the world’s first refugees of sea level rise, and two of the nation’s islands have disappeared into the ocean. Up to 30 per cent of the country’s mangroves is estimated to be lost to sea level rise by 2100.
Changes to the Ocean’s Major Current Systems
Changes in ocean temperatures and wind patterns—results of overall climate change—will affect and alter oceanic currents.
How it affects biological diversity on Earth:
- Many animals’ migratory patterns can change as the currents they follow are altered.
- Many species that depend on ocean currents for reproduction and nutrients will be affected.
For example, many reef-building coral and reef sherry species rely on dispersal of their larvae by currents.
How it affects human welfare: Ocean currents play a significant role in maintaining the Earth’s climate. For example, Europe’s relatively mild climate is supported in part by the sizeable Atlantic current called the Gulf Stream. Changing these currents will have significant implications for the environment across the earth, including changes in rainfall—with more rain in some areas and much less in others—and to the air temperatures. These changes have drastic implications for many species, including humans.
Temperatures on land change as currents take on cooler or warmer waters, affecting vast areas of human abode. Europe, for one, is already influenced by changes of this sort.
Ocean Acidification
The same burning of fossil fuels that are raising greenhouse gas levels in the
atmosphere is also changing the chemical makeup of seawater, making it more acidic.
How it affects biological diversity on Earth:
- Acidification undeviatingly injures the many ocean plants and animals that build shells of calcium
carbonate—including many tropical reef-building corals, cold- water corals, molluscs and other scallops, crustaceans such as lobsters and crabs, and some microscopic plankton and other sea creatures that make up the base of the food web throughout most of the ocean.
- Various of those same shell-forming organisms provide critical habitat and food sources for other plants.
How it impacts human welfare: Several of the shell-forming organisms provide critical habitat and food sources for other organisms—directly and indirectly affecting the availability of marine food sources for humans.
rising ocean stratification
As climate change heats the oceans even just an increase of about 0.2C per decade, on average, the warmer water tends to stay on top of what is then a layer of colder water. This affects tiny drifting marine organisms known as phytoplankton. Though small, Phytoplankton is a significant part of our planetary life support system. They produce about half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and eventually support all of our fisheries. Many Researchers have discovered a direct correlation between rising sea surface temperatures and the decline in phytoplankton growth around the world.
Effects of climate change on terrestrial and wildlife ecosystem
Climate change and biodiversity are interconnected, where climate change is reshaping global biodiversity. Unsustainable human activities that increase the buildup of greenhouse gases and limit the natural balance of atmospheric greenhouse gases exacerbate the effects of climate change on biodiversity.
Rising seas-levels could flood coastal habitats and stem the flow of nutrients from the ocean to the terrestrial ecosystems. Altered climate regimes directly affect wildlife, their behaviour, migration, foraging, growth and reproduction.
Climate change could disrupt the dynamic equilibrium of terrestrial ecosystems by affecting ecosystem productivity, biomass generation, hydrological balance, and trophic interactions. Further, climate change enhances natural disasters and shifts in natural disturbance regimes. Such processes exact physiological and environmental stress on terrestrial ecosystems which adversely affect the ecosystem resistance and resilience. Moreover, the warming atmosphere causes thermal optima to move towards high latitudes and high altitudes. Physical biota readily responds to temperature, where both flora and fauna alter arrangements toward more favourable climatic conditions.
Some climatic parameters that drive life history phenomena, such as photoperiod, are fixed, while others, for instance, the timing of spring weather, are changing because of greenhouse gasses Parmesan, C. (2006). The resulting mismatch between fixed and unsteady drivers of production processes, such as in mating, breeding, movement, hibernation, and post-hibernation activities, will disadvantage some species and profit others. This will result in new ecosystems Surasinghe, T. (2011); this is according to Parmesan. Warming temperature favours biological activities of wildlife pathogens, since high temperature increases breeding rate, survival, hatching success and transmission of wildlife parasites and disease-causing agents.
Climate change dissociates species interactions, mutual associations and a multitude of ecosystem functions. Ultimately, climate change predisposes native terrestrial wildlife to extinction and alters the functions and structure of terrestrial ecosystems. Biodiversity provides ecosystem services including the regulation and mitigation of the adverse impacts of climate change. Therefore, biodiversity conservation and terrestrial ecosystem management are critical to discuss climate change. Robust climate-oriented models with the use of GIS and remote sensing technology are needed to make useful predictions about the spatial and temporal effects of climate change.”
Effects of climate change on forest biodiversity
Ecosystem and climate models imply that climate change will have a variety of consequences on the population of forest organisms and populations as well as impact ecosystem function and composition. In usual, it is expected that habitats will shift towards the poles and migrate upwards in elevation. With the change of these habitats, forest biodiversity will be forced to adjust, and as a result, species composition in forests is likely to change, and those species and populations which are already exposed will potentially become dead. Moreover, with climate change, there will be a higher incidence of extreme climatic events, such as floods and droughts. These types of activities will also alter forest plant and animal populations and can leave forests more predisposed to disturbances such as fire and disease
In usual, there is increasing evidence that forests will be significantly affected by climate change. Forest ecosystems, which are presumed to be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, include mangroves, boreal and tropical forests.