Role of chaning climate in biodiversity

1. Romila Akoijam
Scientist (Entomology)
ICAR RC for NEH Region, Manipur Centre,
Lamphelpat, Manipur
ROLE OF CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
ON BIODIVERSITY

2. INTRODUCTION
Scientists believe that there are evidences all
around us that the earth's climate has been
undergoing noticeable changes, largely
attributed to anthropogenic activities.
 Human activities result in the accumulation of
greenhouse gases which trap heat and increase
the average temperature of our planet (global
warming).
 Changes in long term environmental conditions that can be collectively
called climate change

3.  Global warming (i.e. increase in Earth's average
temperature) could lead
to sea level rises, natural disasters - the
storms/flooding, the hurricanes, drought, wildlife
extinction, water pollution, etc.
 Since the industrial revolution, the mean surface
temperature of Earth has increased an average of 1° C
per century due to the accumulation of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere.
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believe that
the global temperature has increased by close to 1oC in the last century and
they believe that a further increase of between 1.1 to 6.4oC (based on
predictions from climate models) is possible during the next century.

4. Causes of environmental change
A. The external climate
forcing processes
B. The internal climate
forcing processes

5. 1. Variations in the amount of energy received from the Sun
About 30-40% of the UV energy from the Sun is believed to be reflected
back into space, while the remaining 60-70% gets through to the Earth.
Leading to changes to the global energy balance above and hence
changes in our climate.
2. Variations in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun
Changes in the tilt of the Earth’s axis, changes in the shape of Earth's orbit
(i.e. eccentricity) and the shifting of the equinoxes (i.e. precession)
Hence lead to variations in the Earth’s climate (i.e. Climate Change).
A. The External Climate Forcing Processes

6. B. The Internal Climate Forcing Processes
1. The Oceans
Oceans also store heat efficiently, transporting it thousands of miles thus
redistributing heat in time and space.
The oceans and marine life also consume huge amounts of carbon
dioxide.
These ocean based processes exert tremendous influence on global
climate and accounts for the variations.
2. Continental Drift
 It is believed that the big landmass (earth) slowly broke up and take the
current form it has today.
 Scientists believe that the our earth is still slowly drifting and constantly
changing.
 This constant drifting is believe to have impact on the climate because it
changes the physical features of the landmass, their position and the
position of water bodies.
 The separation of the landmasses changed the flow of ocean currents and
winds, which affects the climate.

7. 3. The atmosphere
 Carbon dioxide vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide trap
heat in the atmosphere thus increasing the net “energy” stored and
contributing to Earth warming.
 “Greenhouse gases (GHG)”.
 The Earth climate is also affected by the particles in the atmosphere which
tend to block sunlight reaching the Earth.
4. Water Cycle
 Higher air temperatures can increase water evaporation and melting of ice.
 Water vapour is the most potent greenhouse gas, clouds also affect
evaporation, creating a cooling effect.
5. The Clouds
Clouds reflect solar energy (cooling the Earth) and thereby trapping heat
being radiated up from the surface (warming the Earth).
Variability contribute to climate change.

8. 6. Ice and Snow
The whiteness of ice and snow reflects heat out, cooling the planet. When
ice melts into the sea, this drives heat from the ocean causing variability in
climate.
7. Land Surfaces
Mountain ranges can block clouds, creating "dry" shadows downwind.
Sloping land allows more water runoff, leaving the land and air drier.
A tropical forest will soak up carbon dioxide, but once cleared for cattle
ranching, the same land becomes a source of methane, a greenhouse gas.
8. Volcanic Eruptions
 A volcanic eruption, lasting for few days, emits large volumes of sulphur
dioxide (SO2), water vapour, dust, and ash into the atmosphere that
influence climatic patterns for years.
 The gases and dust particles partially block the incoming rays of the sun,
leading to cooling.

9. 9. Human Contributions to changing environment
Agriculture:
 Methane gas (a GHG) is produced when bacteria decomposes organic
matter.
 It has been estimated that close to a quarter of methane gas from
human activities result from livestock and the decomposition of animal
manure.
 Paddy rice farming, land use and wetland changes are also agricultural
processes that could contribute to the release of methane to the
atmosphere.
 Use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for agricultural activities also
lead to higher NO2 concentrations and pollute the environment.

10. Deforestation
 With the growth of industrial activities has been worldwide
deforestation.
 As part of the photosynthetic process, trees abstract carbon dioxide
from the air and release oxygen back to the atmosphere.
 With deforestation, the number of trees available to take in CO2 from
the atmosphere has greatly reduced, leading to more available CO2
and increased greenhouse effect.
 When forests are cleared, most of the carbon in the burned or
decomposing trees escape back into the atmosphere

11. Fossil Fuels:
 Widely used to power our modern day engines and locomotives.
 The burning of coals, natural gas and oil yields most of the energy used
to produce electricity, heat houses, run automobiles and power factories.
 The burning of fossil fuels to obtain energy to drive these engines lead to
production of tremendous amount of CO2 which is released to our
environment and increasers the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
 It is believed that CO2 generated from the burning of fossil fuel accounts
for about three-quarters of the total CO2 emissions from human
activities.

12. Refrigeration/Fire Suppression/Manufacturing:
Establishments and Industries used to use chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in
refrigeration systems, and CFCs and halons in fire suppression systems and
manufacturing processes.
Other human factors leading to release of GHGs (particularly methane) to
the atmosphere include pipeline losses, landfill emissions and septic
systems that enhance and target the fermentation process also are major
sources of atmospheric methane.

13. Environmental change impacts on biodiversity in the Arctic
The Arctic, Antarctic and high latitudes have
had the highest rates of warming, and this
trend is projected to continue.
In the Arctic, it is not just a reduction in the
extent of sea ice, but its thickness and age.
Less ice means less reflective surface meaning
more rapid melting.
In terms of biodiversity, “the prospect of ice-
free summers in the Arctic Ocean implies the
loss of an entire biome”, the Global
Biodiversity.
In addition, “Whole species assemblages are
adapted to life on top of or under ice - from
the algae that grow on the underside of
multi-year ice, forming up to 25% of the
Arctic Ocean’s primary production, to the
invertebrates, birds, fish and marine
mammals further up the food chain.”

14. The extent of floating sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, as measured at its annual minimum in
September, showed a steady decline between 1980 and 2009.Source: National Snow
and Ice Data Center, graph compiled by Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (2010) Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, May 2010

15. Ocean Change
 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 reorganized and ecological
surprises are likely.

17. Increasing Ocean Acidification
 More CO2 in the atmosphere means more CO2 in the ocean;
 Atmospheric CO2 is dissolved in the ocean, which becomes more
acidic; and
 The resulting changes in the chemistry of the oceans disrupts the
ability of plants and animals in the sea to make shells and
skeletons of calcium carbonate

18. Increasing ocean stratification:
 As climate change warms the oceans (even just an increase
of about 0.2 °C per decade, on average), the warmer water
(which is lighter) 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 are a critical
part of our planetary life support system.

19. Lizards Threatened By Climate Change
A “global-scale study” published in the journal
Science that climate change could wipe out 20% of the world's lizard
species by 2080.
Global projection models used by the scientists suggested that
“lizards have already crossed a threshold for extinctions caused by
climate change”.

20. Arthropods and insect pest population
Monitoring of terrestrial arthropods can provide early warnings
of ecological changes due to climate change.
Arthropods can be used as indicators of environmental change
more rapidly than the vertebrates (Scherm et al. 2000; Gregory
et al. 2009).
For monitoring purposes, indicator assemblages should exhibit
varying sensitivities to environmental changes, and exhibit
diversity in life-history and ecological interactions.
Realistic information on arthropod diversity must be integrated
into policy planning and management practices if ecosystems
are to be managed for use by future generations.

21.  Main effects of climate change and pollution on arthropod
communities result in decreased abundance of decomposers
and predators, and increased herbivory, which may have
negative consequences for structure and services of the entire
ecosystems.
 Responses of arthropods to pollution depend on both
temperature and precipitation, and ecosystem-wide adverse
effects are likely to increase under predicted climate change
(Zvereva and Kozlov 2010).
Arthropods and insect pest population (CONTD..)

22. More than a dozen insect pest species like serpentine leaf
miner, coffee berry borer, papaya mealy bug, spiralling
whitefly, erythrina gall wasp and others have been introduced
into cultivated systems in Southern Karnataka from the past
two decades (1990-2001) and
These are invasives having impacts on local biodiversity.
Climate is now warming rapidly- that the effects are
perceptible within a single human lifetime or within the history
of a people (IPCC, 2001).
The synergy between climate change for biodiversity and is a
central challenge facing conservation (Peters and Lovejoy, 1992;
Hughes, 2000).
Arthropods and insect pest population (CONTD..)

23. Arthropods and insect pest population (CONTD..)
 It has been documented that environment change has
changed the migratory route of birds and the composition of
vegetation, along the routes the bird fly, have drastically
changed.
 It also affected the soil fauna such as earthworms, insects
and other arthropods.
 It has been estimated that with a 2°C increase insects might
experience 1-5 additional life cycles per season (Yamamura
and kritani, 1998).
 Along with temperature, moisture and CO2 affects the
insects.
 So, one can use insects as indicator species for detecting
climate change.

24.  Entomologists expect that insects will expand their geographic ranges, and
increase reproduction rates and overwintering success.
 This means that it is likely that farmers will have more types and higher
numbers of insects to manage.
 Based on current comparisons of insecticide usage between southern and
northern states, this is likely to mean more insecticide use and expenditure
for farmers.
 Entomologists predict additional generations of important insect pests in
India like brown planthopper, leaf hoppers, aphids, thrips, etc., as a result of
increased temperatures, probably necessitating more insecticide
applications to maintain populations below economic damaged thresholds.
 A basic rule of thumb for avoiding the development of insecticide resistance
is to apply insecticides with a particular mode of action less frequently.
 With more insecticide applications required, the probability of applying a
given mode of action insecticide more times in a season will increase, thus
increasing the probability of insects developing resistance to insecticides.
Arthropods and insect pest population (CONTD..)

25. Plant diversity
 The Earth has experienced a constantly
changing climate in the time since plants first
evolved.
 Increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration for
affect how plants photosynthesise, resulting in
increases in plant water use efficiency, enhanced
photosynthetic capacity and increased growth.
 Depending on environment, there are differential
responses to elevated atmospheric CO2 between
major ‘functional types’ of plant, such
as C3 and C4 plants, or more or less woody species;
which has the potential among other things to alter
competition between these groups.
 Increased CO2 can also lead to increased Carbon :
Nitrogen ratios in the leaves of plants or in other
aspects of leaf chemistry, possibly
changing herbivore nutrition.

26. Plant diversity (CONTD..)
Effects of temperature
 Increases in temperature raise the rate of many
physiological processes such as
photosynthesis in plants, to an upper limit.
 Extreme temperatures can be harmful when
beyond the physiological limits of a plant.
Effects of water
 Changes in precipitation are predicted to be
less consistent than for temperature and more
variable between regions, with predictions for
some areas to become much wetter, and some
much drier.

27. Plant diversity (CONTD..)
General effects
 Environmental variables will not act in
isolation, but also in combination with one
other, and with other pressures such as
habitat degradation and loss or the
introduction of exotic species.
 It is suggested that that these other
drivers of biodiversity change will act in
synergy with climate change to increase
the pressure on species to survive.

28. Overcome the problems
 IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is the world’s
oldest environmental organization, working around the world.
 Periodically, they produce the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to
highlight species that are extinct or extinct in the wild, critically endangered,
endangered or vulnerable.
 Declining the numbers of tiger, lion, rhinos, vultures in India, polar bears,
penguins, amphibian populations, monkeys, apes and other primates.
 Conservation biology matured in the mid-20th century
as ecologists, naturalists, and other scientists began to research and address
issues pertaining to global biodiversity declines.

29. Overcome the problems (CONTD..)
 The conservation ethic advocates management of natural resources for the
purpose of sustaining biodiversity in species, ecosystems, the evolutionary
process, and human culture and society.
 Conservation biology is reforming around strategic plans to protect
biodiversity.
 Preserving global biodiversity is a priority in strategic conservation plans
that are designed to engage public policy and concerns affecting local,
regional and global scales of communities, ecosystems, and cultures.
 Action plans identify ways of sustaining human well-being,
employing natural capital, market capital, and ecosystem services

30. Conclusion
 The scientific community should intensify its efforts to identify
the causes of non linearities and thresholds in the response of
ecosystem and social processes to changes in biodiversity.
 The scientific community and informed citizens should become
engaged in conveying to the public, policy-makers and land
managers the enormity and irreversibility of current rapid
changes in biodiversity.
 Despite convincing scientific evidence, there is a general lack of
public awareness that change in biodiversity is a global change
with important ecological and societal impacts and that these
changes are not amenable to mitigation after they have occurred.
 Managers should consider the ecological and social
consequences of biodiversity change at all stages in land-use
planning. For example, environmental impact assessments
should consider both the current costs of ecosystem services
that will be lost and the risk of nonlinear future change.

31.  Managed landscapes can support a large proportion of regional
biodiversity with proper planning, management and adaptive
responses.
 Scientists and other citizens should collaborate with governmental
organizations, from local to national levels, in developing and
implementing policies and regulations that reduce environmental
deterioration and changes in biodiversity.
 For example, more stringent restrictions on the import of biotic
materials could curb the rate of biotic invasions, and improved
land and watershed management could reduce their rates of
spread.
 A new international body that would be comparable to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should assess
changes in biodiversity and their consequences as an integral
component of the assessment of the societal impacts of global
change.
Conclusion (CONTD..)