The Impact Of Climate Change On Biodiversity
Deciduous forest mostly dominated by types of tree that have broad-leaved shape that shed and regrow in a year. There are two kind of deciduous forest named temperate deciduous forest and tropical deciduous forest. Temperate deciduous forest commonly found in the middle latitudes, in which the region around there have distinct and well-defined seasons and also possess a various levels of temperature. These forest can be found in eastern North America, western and central Europe and northeastern Asia while tropical deciduous forest commonly seen in area of South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, India, Australia, southern Africa and others. These forests are warmer and they have a dry season that extends for few months in which this is the time they shed their leaves. As climate change, it affect these forest differently compared to others. As example, in southern and western of Europe it is predicted that temperature increases will be more pronounced in summer whereas in Eastern Europe warming will become obvious to see around winter. In Northern Europe, the warmth pretty much spread equally throughout all four seasons.
Generally, climate change is causing dry regions becoming drier and wet regions getting wetter. In addition to the changes or discrepancies of the season, the precipitation distribution is also affected. It tends to fall in massive amount but the period or the gap between each rains become longer. Forest that prone to severe winter in this case temperate deciduous forest will be affected the most from it. Higher frequency and intensity of ice storms are of particular concern since the accumulation of ice could cause irrevocable damage on hardwoods.
On the other hand, a few deciduous forests are starting to experience a slightly often in sustained drought as result of climate change, which brings harm to many species such as birch and beech. In the western United States, southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and northern China, deciduous forest are more vulnerable to increased droughts and these droughts have the possibility to destroy large swaths of forest rapidly as it can produce spark. High temperature may harm some deciduous forest like those in the Mediterranean as trees unable to undergo photosynthesis efficiently in extreme heat while in cooler regions warmer weather can instigate more tree growth as long as there is enough water. Also, climate changes do affect deciduous forests in a way that they have to migrate to new surroundings.
Desert
Deserts can be found on every single continent in the world and it cover more than one fifth of the earth. A place is considered or can be categorized as desert when it received not more than 10 inches of rain per year Climate change is affecting deserts around the world as the creatures and plants living in it are struggling to survive. People might think that they would love climate change but their numbers actually diminishing gradually. From Southern Africa to the Southwestern U. S, arid environment are becoming more hostile and their denizens could barely keep up and showing signs of struggle.
Canophytum or cone plants is one the plants living in the desert. It has high resilience towards high temperature as it could live in the harshest environment on earth called desert but a research found that if the climate patterns change, so will these microhabitats since their habitat could vanish in the next 50 years. Dwarf succulents in South Africa and Namibia may just be gone by 2069. Even cacti and succulents in Texas and Mexico could face similar risks despite being one of the best-adapted plants around, because they have adapted to the harshest surrounding in many of the same ways. Tortoises and chuckwallas in California’s Mojave and Sonoran deserts are already losing habitats and it can become even worst if the temperature rise by two degrees. The same case applied to Joshua Tree National Park, it is bound to lose around 90 percent of its eponymous trees if the temperature increases by three degrees. Critters in it also are likely have to move to cooler and higher-elevation sites to live at the end of the decade. It is a harsh task for the species like some lizards, tortoises and the Joshua tree themselves since they need more times. Even to fast and omnipresent animals like the side-blotched lizard could not survive. Today, side-blotched lizards can barely be found or seen at lower ground in Joshua Tree, but at higher, cooler, and wetter ground, their size actually growing, If populations may keep moving upward as temperatures rise, eventually there is no more room to escape. From Arizona to Australia, desert birds like hummingbirds and thornbills could possibly die to the hotter, longer and higher frequency of heat waves.
Grassland
Grasslands or prairies or pampas or steppes or savannas is land that is naturally dominant by grass. It could be found where there is insufficient water or rainfall for it to become a forest but yet not so little that is it becomes a desert. Grasslands are generally open and fairly flat, and they exist on every continent except Antarctica. There are two types of grasslands that exists known as tropical and temperate. As climate conditions shift geographically, so will the distribution of many plants and animals in grassland. The relatively flat surface of savannah more vulnerable towards climate changes since creatures and plants must migrate very far to adjust for the changes of climate. Clear difference can be seen for mountain terrain as the conditions change over short distances because of steep increases in elevation. Warmer temperature causes more evaporation process and change the pattern of rain in which can lead to deplete of aquifers and become a threat towards water-dependant habitats.
As climate increases, the higher the amount of atmospheric CO2 causes increases plant growth, as well as water use efficiency, which is especially important in drier regions. However, the benefits of increased CO2 will be limited by factors including the availability of water, nutrients and nitrogen. Thus, effects of elevated CO2 on plant growth will vary with local climate patterns, species adaptations to water limitations, and nitrogen availability. Changes in temperature, rainfall and atmospheric CO2 concentration might affect different forage species in different ways therefore altering the species composition of the grassland community. Overall conditions are likely to become more favourable for forage legumes. The protein provided by forage is related to the nitrogen content and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations have been shown to be associated with reduced shoot nitrogen as well as reduced vitamins and increased soluble carbohydrate. Therefore increased growth rate associated with increased atmospheric CO2 concentration, which might allow younger plants to be consumed, might help increase the protein and the soluble carbohydrates content for livestock.
Tropical Forest
Tropical forests include many forest types. True tropical rain forest is warm and wet, usually found near the equator, where the monthly temperature the lowest is 18 degrees Celsius, rainfall exceeds 1700 millimeters per year, and no month gets less than 100 millimeters. Far from the equator, one usually finds drier tropical forests and on mountains there are montane tropical forests which are cooler and wetter. At sites with extreme conditions such as flooding or very poor soils, specialized tropical forests, such as mangrove, occur. During the last 30 000 years, climate changes has affected the distribution, formation and species composition of tropical forest. In the tropics, rare species and isolated population are also threatened especially ones in sensitive environment such as islands, scrublands and forest canopy. In the tropical Andes and Central America, amphibians are most vulnerable to changing temperature and reduced cloud cover. The golden toad from Montverde, Costa Rica, was the first victim of extinction due to climate change. Since then, dozens of harlequin frogs extinct.
