Climate Change impact on biodiversity
Environmental change caused by climate change is disrupting natural habitats and is having a strong impact on plant and animal species. There are indications that rising temperatures, along with changing rainfall patterns, extreme weather events and ocean acidification, are putting pressure on biodiversity, which is already threatened by other human activities such as urbanization, pollution, deforestation and commercial fishing.
If current warming rates continue, global temperatures could rise by more than 1.5oC by 2030 compared to the pre-industrial revolution. The main impact of climate change on biodiversity is the increase in the intensity and frequency of fires, storms or periods of drought. For example, in Australia at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, 97,000 km2 (as large as Hungary) were destroyed by intense fires, which are now known to have been caused by climate change. As a result, the number of endangered species in the area has increased by 14%.
Rising global temperatures are capable of changing ecosystems over longer periods of time. There is already evidence that the reduction of water vapor in the atmosphere from the 1990s to the present has affected 59% of the world's vegetation, expressed in darkening and reduced plant growth.
Rising ocean temperatures affect marine organisms. Corals are particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures and acidification of the ocean. Such processes make it difficult to form shells and hard skeletons of mussels and corals. Seaweed begins to bloom more intensely.
The main effects of climate change on European nature are related to:
- The growth cycle of plants and animals, as well as, the distribution of tree species are affected.
- The productivity of many ecosystems has increased and the composition of some of them has changed.
- Seasonal changes disrupt animal feeding patterns.
- There is a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of forest fires.
Along with the threats to biodiversity posed by climate change, natural habitats play an important role in climate regulation and can help transform the main greenhouse gas – carbon dioxide – into oxygen. Forests, for example, and especially mangrove forests along large tropical water basins, are significant carbon sinks. Protecting these natural allies in the fight against climate change is an important part of limiting this process.
With the loss of biodiversity, humanity is not only losing nature, but also some of its best defenses against climate change.
