Effect of Climate Change

11 Key excerpts on "Effect of Climate Change"

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  eBook - PDF

  Climate Change and Flood Risk Management

  • Tanjina Nur(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Delve Publishing

    (Publisher)

  However, there is still ambiguity about the extent and rapidity at which climatic conditions will impact our biodiversity and ecosystem services. 3.1 INTRODUCTION Variation in climatic conditions has severe consequences on biophysical atmosphere in terms of discrepancies at the start and end of the season, glacial retreat, reduction in the amount of Arctic sea ice and a rise in sea level. These alterations in the climatic conditions have already left a deep impact on biodiversity at the species level, with respect to phenology, distribution of different ecological population, and level of ecosystem in terms of dispersal, structure & function of atmosphere. Climate leaves very vital environmental impact on our ecosystems. Varying climate affects bionetworks in a variety of ways. For example, rise in temperature may force several species to migrate to higher level of latitudes or elevations where temperatures are more favorable for their survival. In a similar manner, when sea level rises, invasion of saltwater into freshwater system leads some of the key species to displace or die, which in turns leads to the elimination of predators or prey that are critical for the working of existing food chain. Changes in climate does not only disturb our ecosystems and species directly, but it also interacts with other human stressors such as development that hampers the growth of economy. Though most of the minor stressors cause only negligible impact when they act alone, but their cumulative impact may lead to dramatic ecological fluctuations. For example, climatic transformations may intensify the pressure that development of land places on delicate coastal areas. In addition to this, certain area of logged forests may become susceptible to erosion if any alternation in climatic conditions leads to an increase in heavy rain storms.

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  eBook - ePub

  Greenhouse Warming

  Abatement and Adaptation

  • Norman J. Rosenberg, William E. Easterling III, Pierre R. Crosson, Joel Darmstadter(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)
• The fact that the effects of climate change on ecosystems will be superimposed on those of other equally profound environmental agents of change such as forest clearing, air pollution, erosion, and species extinctions. The separation of climatic effects from these other effects through controlled experimentation is difficult if not impossible.
One might conclude that these deficiencies would completely proscribe any attempt to predict the ecological consequences of climatic change. Certainly they suggest that any such predictions should be taken as reasoned speculations at best. However, the recent advances in paleoecological reconstructions of responses of ecosystems to climatic changes of the past, the development of longer-term ecological studies aimed at characterizing change, and the application of tested ecological models (in both paleoeco-logical and long-term studies) have all contributed to our improved capability to judge climatic effects on ecosystems. Using all of these tools, defective as they may be, we undertake an evaluation of the impacts of climate change on ecological systems.

Evaluating Impacts of Climate Change on Ecological Systems

We know from paleontological evaluations that, over long time periods (say, millions of years), species can respond to a wide range of climatic and other environmental changes. The panorama of species evolution that one sees when walking through a museum is testimony to the resiliency of biological systems in response to changes that are easily as profound as the climatic changes that might follow a carbon dioxide-induced climatic warming. Since 15,000 years ago, when the continental glaciers began to recede from what is now the contiguous forty-eight states, major plant and animal species have moved their ranges thousands of miles in response to the recession of the glaciers and the consequent climatic change. It would appear that many species are still expanding their ranges in response to the displacement caused by the last glaciation. While it is comforting to realize that there is considerable resiliency in the response of certain species to climate change, it is also important to remember that these responses have occurred on millennial time scales and over unmanaged landscapes. The present situation involves climate change on the scale of a century or less and on landscapes vastly changed by human beings.