Chapter ?. Biodiversity and Global Climate Change ......

Amanda Isbell

Introduction

Biodiversity is defined as the genes, species, habitats, and ecosystems of a planet (Sell, 1996; Feehan, 2009). These collective ecosystems are important to mankind, because they provide necessary products and services that have become integral to human society. Such benefits include, but are not limited to: pest control, climate regulation, food supply, and recreational aesthetics. Species and their ecosystems have exhibited a variety of responses to rising global temperatures, including migration patterns, decreasing range sizes, and a change in host organisms (Feehan, 2009). This leads many scientists to believe that the changing climate could play a direct role in biodiversity changes (Pimm, 2009). This chapter focuses on the impact of climate change on biodiversity, and specific species that are sensitive to the environmental changes.

Biodiversity

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, MEA, 2006), biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part. This includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.This is an important definition to understand, because it demonstrates how many factors must be considered when accounting for the biodiversity of a certain space. Each of these aspects is inherently significant to the success of the species and habitats contained within a system, and thus, the biodiversity of the system. Biodiversity influences many natural resources and processes, including timber products, the preservation of exotic species, food supply, the protection of water sources, and the variety of genetic material in an ecosystem. These are resources that have become vital to mankind. And yet, as essential as they are to a functioning society, recent studies suggest that extinction rates are high and increasing,

and populations and habitats are declining in number (MEA, 2006). Figure 1. shows the decline in the populations of vertebrate species since 1970 (MEA, 2006). Although this data is not an accurate representation for non-vertebrates, it demonstrates the trend of decreasing species numbers in recent decades. This presents a problem for society. Biodiversity is usually associated with animal and plant species, which has caused its role in everyday human life to become overlooked. But this trend of decline could affect the quality of human life as well. For example, in a 2000 report, 25% of medicines acquired their active ingredients from plant systems (Waldman and Shevah, 2000). Should the projected decreases of species occur, we could potentially lose some of these natural sources of medicines.

Causes of Biodiversity Change

Among the numerous causes of biodiversity change are anthropogenic factors such as increased urbanization, the modification of river systems, habitat fragmentation due to infrastructure expansion, and the destruction of ecosystems for economic and resource usage (Feehan, 2009). The most common theme among the causes listed above is that they all fallunder the category of land-use change. Land-use change has been accepted as the most important factor of biodiversity change in the current century (Sala and Jackson, 2006). A quantitative analysis by Wilcove et al. (1997) showed that 85% of listed species they examined were threatened by habitat change (Beatley, 2000). This is a cause for concern, because the regions most affected by land-use change also tend to be the most biologically diverse. For example, tropical forests along the equator contain approximately 50-90% of the species of the world (Sell, 1996). The number of plant species per ecoregion is displayed graphically in Figure 3. Projections of vascular plant species show that these same regions will lose the most biodiversity, with Tropical-Africa sustaining the most losses and Indo-Malayan the second-most (MEA, 2006).

Latin America will also experience major losses. Figure 4. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007) depicts the percent of habitat deforestation in Latin America per year, between 1990 and 2000. Brazil is shown to have experienced the most deforestation at approximately 25 million hectares per year. When in comparison to Figure 3., we can see that Brazil also has the largest number of plant species. This demonstrates the imminent threat to the biodiversity of the region. Another significant cause of biodiversity change is nutrient loading. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defines nutrient loading as anthropogenic increases in nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and other nutrient-associated pollutants. In recent decades, nitrogen loading has become increasingly popular due to its agricultural production benefits (MEA, 2006). Figure 2. shows nitrogen released into the atmosphere per year and the rising usage. This graph demonstrates that current trends carry projected nitrogen emissions past the range that ecosystems can convert into beneficial products. Once this level has been reached, harmful effects can occur that negate any beneficial crop yield. Such effects include: eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems, hypoxia in coastal marine ecosystems, as well as nitrous oxide emissions that pollute the atmosphere and contribute to global climate change (MEA, 2006). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment considers land-use change and nutrient loading to be two of the three most significant drivers of biodiversity change. The third is climate change, which will be discussed in detail in the next section.

The Impact of Global Climate Change

The Environmental Protection Agency defines climate change as any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer) (EPA, 2011). These changes can occur due to natural factors (ex. intensity of the sun, changes in the orbit of the Earth), natural processes in the system (ex. changes in ocean circulation), or due to human activities such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels (EPA, 2011). Global average surface temperature, global average sea level, and Northern Hemisphere snow cover data is depicted in Figure 5 (IPCC, 2007). This data clearly shows that some degree of global

climate change is occurring, as these indicators of climate have experienced change. Figure 6. displays another indicator of climate change, the Arctic region. This data shows that the ice cap and surrounding frozen polar waters will significantly decrease in the future, although it is deficient in supplying a proper time scale. Climate change may not be the largest cause of biodiversity change on its own, but it has been shown exacerbate the effects of other factors, and vice versa. For example, fragmented populations are more susceptible to the effects of climate change than non-fragmented populations (de Chazal, 2009). Fragmented populations are already vulnerable to ecosystem change due in part to a lack of genetic diversity that limits the ability of these populations to adapt to a new environment (MEA, 2006). When combined, these factors increase the potential of extinction for at-risk species (de Chazal, 2009) and those that have small habitat ranges (Feehan, 2009). This kn Although climate change is not the largest threat to biodiversity compared to other factors, it does present issues of its own. In general, these are range shifts, range losses, and population declines (Thuiller et all, 2005). More specifically, climate change is expected to decrease water availability, increase the risk of floods and wildfires, and increase the transmission of vector-borne diseases in areas previously unaffected (MEA, 2006). In the next addition, this chapter will delve into more specific details of the impact that climate change has on global biodiversity. I will also chose example species that are thought to be the most sensitive to global climate change and briefly discuss why.

Figure 1.

Figure 1 The Living Planet Index (Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2006)

Figure 2.

Figure 2. Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Figure 3.

Figure 3. The number of plant species per ecoregion (Kier, 2005)

Figure 4.

Figure 4. Deforestation represented by millions of hectare per year in Latin America (IPCC, 2007)

Figure 5.

Figure 5. This data represents the change in global average surface temperature, global average sea level, and the Northern Hemisphere snow cover from 1961-1990 (IPCC, 2007).

Figure 6.

Figure 6. Arctic biomes at the present and the projected future. (IPCC, 2007)

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