Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-669899f699-chc8l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-28T21:43:52.228Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Impacts of climate change on the biotic fabric of the planet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2011

Edited by
Katherine Richardson ,
Will Steffen  and
Diana Liverman
Katherine Richardson
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Will Steffen
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
Diana Liverman
Affiliation:
University of Arizona and University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

‘The world that is bequeathed to us is, in our hands and in our time, being unmade … the future complexity of life – our potential gift to the future – is being eradicated’

Biodiversity represents the fabric of life itself. It is comprised not only of numbers of species, but also includes the variety of all life forms and their genes as well as the communities and ecosystems of which they are a part. The consequences of climate change for biodiversity are potentially profound.

Many acknowledge the importance of biodiversity in its own right, without any consideration of utilitarian value. However, biodiversity also provides the underpinning of the ecosystem services on which human societies are ultimately dependent. Without well-functioning ecosystems we humans, as a biological species, could not exist.

Even before anthropogenic climate change became a significant issue, biodiversity has been in decline in many parts of the world. The reasons are almost entirely linked to human numbers, economic activity and resource use; the proximate causes include landscape modification and conversion, direct predation (i.e. hunting and fishing), introduction of alien species, extraction of water resources, and application of excess nutrients. Climate change now represents an additional stressor, usually interacting with the already existing stressors in complex ways. The acceleration of biodiversity decline with climate change, and the consequent further degradation and loss of ecosystem services, provides important information to inform the discussion of what constitutes dangerous climate change.

Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions , pp. 134 - 162
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andelman, S., Midgley, G., Polasky, S.et al. (2009). Ensuring biodiversity security in the face of climate change. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Attorre, F., Vitale, M., Tomasetto, F.et al. (2009). Effect of climate change on tree species distribution to support the elaboration of adaptive management strategies in natural protected areas. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbier, E. and Cox, M. (2002). Economic and demographic factors affecting mangrove loss in the coastal provinces of Thailand, 1979–1996. Ambio, 31, 351–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaugrand, G., Reid, P. C., Ibañez, F., Lindley, J. A. and Edwards, M. (2002). Reorganisation of North Atlantic marine copepod biodiversity and climate. Science, 296, 1692–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International, Birdlife (2008). State of the World's Birds: Indicators for our Changing World. Cambridge, UK: Birdlife International.Google Scholar
Bruno, J. F. and Selig, E. R. (2007). Regional decline of coral cover in the Indo-Pacific: Timing, extent, and subregional comparisons. PLoS ONE, 2, e711.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bryant, D., Burke, L., McManus, J. and Spalding, M. (1998). Reefs at Risk: A Map-based Indicator of Threats to the World's Coral Reefs. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute.Google Scholar
Carpenter, S. R., Mooney, H. A., Agard, J.et al. (2009). Science for managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 106, 1305–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cesario, M., Cesario, R. R. and Andrade-Morraye, M. (2009). The impacts of climate change on ecosystem services: The case of disrupted disease regulation in South-Western Amazonia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 302007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ChapinIII, F. S., Randerson, J. T., McGuire, A. D., Foley, J. A. and Field, C. B. (2008). Changing feedbacks in the climate–biosphere system. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 6, 313–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleland, E. E., Chuine, I., Menzel, A., Mooney, H. A. and Schwartz, M. D. (2007). Shifting plant phenology in response to global change. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 22, 357–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De'ath, G., Lough, J. M. and Fabricius, K. E. (2009). Declining coral calcification on the Great Barrier Reef. Science, 323, 116–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Done, T., Whetton, P., Jones, R.et al. (2003). Global Climate Change and Coral Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Final report to the State of Queensland Greenhouse Taskforce through the Department of Natural Resources and Mining. Brisbane: Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources.Google Scholar
Donner, S. D., Skirving, W. J., Little, C. M., Oppenheimer, M. and Hoegh-Guldberg, O. (2005). Global assessment of coral bleaching and required rates of adaptation under climate change. Global Change Biology, 11, 2251–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,EPICA community members (2004). Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core. Nature, 429, 623–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folke, C., Hahn, T., Olsson, P. and Norberg, J. (2005). Adaptive governance of social–ecological systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 30, 441–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, J. L. S. and Bendtsen, J. (2009). Effects of climate change on hypoxia in the North Sea–Baltic Sea transition zone. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 302016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, J. W., Nedergaard, M. and Skov, F. (2009). Ecological consequences of climate change and how to measure them. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 302015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbs, R. J. and Mooney, H. A. (1995). Effects of episodic rain events on mediterranean-climate ecosystems. In Time Scales of Biological Responses to Water Constraints, eds. Roy, J., Aronson, J. and Castri, F. di. Amsterdam: SPB Academic Publishing, pp. 71–85.Google Scholar
Hodgkin, T., Snook, L., Bellon, M. and Frison, E. (2009). Redefining in situ and ex situ conservation of useful plant diversity in an era of climate change. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoegh-Guldberg, O. (1999). Climate change, coral bleaching and the future of the world's coral reefs. Marine and Freshwater Research, 50, 839–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Hoegh-Guldberg, H., Stout, D. K., Cesar, H. and Timmerman, A. (2000). Pacific in Peril: Biological, Economic and Social Impacts of Climate Change on Pacific Coral Reefs. Suva, Fiji: Greenpeace.Google Scholar
Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Hoegh-Guldberg, H., Veron, J. E.et al. (2009). The Coral Triangle and Climate Change: Ecosystems, People and Societies at Risk. Brisbane: WWF Australia, http://www.panda.org/coraltriangle.Google Scholar
Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Hughes, L., McIntyre, S.et al. (2008). Assisted colonization and rapid climate change. Science, 321, 345–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Mumby, P. J., Hooten, A. J.et al. (2007). Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification. Science, 318, 1737–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hole, D., Turner, W., Brooks, T.et al. (2009). Towards an adaptive management framework for climate change across species, sites and land/seascapes. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2001). Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds. Houghton, J. T., Ding, Y., Griggs, D. J., Noguer, M., Linden, P. J., Dai, X., Maskell, K. and Johnson, C. A.. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
,Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007a). Summary for policymakers. In Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds. Parry, M. L., Canziani, O.F., Palutikof, J. P., Linden, P. J. and Hanson, C.E.. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 7–22.Google Scholar
,Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007b). Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds. Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K. B., Tignor, M. and Miller, H. L.. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. B. C. (2008). Ecological extinction and evolution in the brave new ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 105, 11458–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarvis, A., King, N., Gaiji, S.et al. (2009). GBIF: Infrastructure, standards and access to data and tools to forecast changes in agricultural production. In Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions. International Scientific Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark, 10–12 March. London: Institute of Physics IOP, p. 1.Google Scholar
Kathiresan, K. and Rajendran, N. (2006). Coastal mangrove forests mitigated tsunami. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 65, 601–06.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleypas, J. A. and Langdon, C. (2006). Coral reefs and changing seawater chemistry. In Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Science and Management. AGU Monograph Series, Coastal and Estuarine Studies, eds. Phinney, J. T., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Kleypas, J., Skirving, W. and Strong, A.. Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union.Google Scholar
Lenoir, J., Gégout, J. C., Marquet, P. A., Ruffray, P. and Brisse, H. (2008). A significant upward shift in plant species optimum elevation during the 20th century. Science, 320, 1768–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindenmayer, D. (2009). Ecosystem services: An example of monetary valuation. In Australia's Biodiversity and Climate Change, eds. Steffen, W., Burbidge, A., Hughes, L., Kitching, R., Lindenmayer, D., Musgrave, W., Smith, M. Stafford and Werner, P.. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing.Google Scholar
Lobell, D. B., Burke, M. B., Tebaldi, C.et al. (2008). Prioritizing climate change adaptation needs for food security in 2030. Science, 319, 607–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lorius, C., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D., Hansen, J. and Treut, H. (1990). The ice-core record: Climate sensitivity and future greenhouse warming. Nature, 347, 139–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, M. E., Bradley, R. S. and Hughes, M. K. (1999). Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 759–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, A. D., Fischer, J., Felton, A.et al. (2009). Landscape fluidity – a new perspective for understanding and adapting to global change. Journal of Biogeography, 36, 193–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenzie, N. L., Burbidge, A. A., Baynes, A.et al. (2007). Analysis of factors implicated in the recent decline of Australia's mammal fauna. Journal of Biogeography, 34, 597–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mieszkowska, N., Hawkins, S. and Burrows, M. (2009). Climate-driven changes in coastal marine biodiversity: trends, forecasts & management implications. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Ecosystems and Human Well-being. General Synthesis. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.Google Scholar
Miller, C., Indriani, G., Suroso, D., Jovanovic, T. and Alexander, K. (2009). Reintegrating native biodiversity in Indonesia's agricultural landscapes: Reducing the vulnerability of the rural poor to climate change; IARU International Scientific Congress on Climate Change, Copenhagen, 10–12 March 2009, Session 31 (Spoken paper).
Mølgaard, P. (2009). Herbs are hurt, shrubs will thrive in a warmer arctic climate results of ITEX – The International Tundra Experiment. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Møller, P. R. (2009). Is a recent increase of the Greenland fish fauna caused by climate change?IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mooney, H. A. (2007). The costs of losing and restoring ecosystem services. In Managing and Designing Landscapes for Conservation, eds. Lindenmayer, D. B. and Hobbs, R. J.. Oxford: Blackwell Press, pp. 365–75.Google Scholar
Moritz, C., Patton, J. L., Conroy, C. J.et al. (2008). Impact of a century of climate change on small-mammal communities in Yosemite National Park, USA. Science, 322, 261–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moy, A. D., Howard, W. D., Bray, S. G. and Trull, T. W. (2009). Reduced calcification in modern Southern Ocean planktonic foraminifera. Nature Geoscience, 2, 276–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parmesan, C. (2006). Ecological and evolutionary responses to recent climate change. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 37, 637–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parmesan, C. and Yohe, G. (2003). A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature, 421, 37–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pedersen, J. K., Arndal, M. F. and Schmidt, I. K. (2009). Above and belowground phenology in a heathland during future climate change. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, A. L., Low, P. J., Ellis, J. R. and Reynolds, J. D. (2005). Climate change and distribution shifts in marine fishes. Science, 308, 1912–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Potvin, C., ChapinIII, F. S., Gonzalez, A.et al. (2007). Plant biodiversity and responses to elevated carbon dioxide. In Terrestrial Ecosystems in a Changing World, eds. Canadell, J., Pataki, D. and Pitelka, L.., Heidelberg, , Germany: Springer-Verlag, pp. 125–34.Google Scholar
Pounds, J. A., Bustamante, M. R., Coloma, L. A.et al. (2006). Widespread amphibian extinction from epidemic disease driven by global warming. Nature, 439, 161–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reaka-Kudla, M. L. (1997). Global biodiversity of coral reefs: A comparison with rainforests. In Biodiversity II: Understanding and Protecting Our Biological Resources, eds. Reaka-Kudla, M. L., Wilson, D. E. and Wilson, E. O.. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press.Google Scholar
Réale, D., McAdam, A. G., Boutin, S. and Berteaux, D. (2003). Genetic and plastic responses of a northern mammal to climate change. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 270, 591–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reusch, T. B. H. and Wood, T. E. (2007). Molecular ecology of global change. Molecular Ecology, 16, 3973–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scheffer, M., Straile, D., Nes, E. H. and Hosper, H. (2001). Climatic warming causes regime shifts in lake food webs. Limnology and Oceanography, 46, 1780–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholze, M., Knorr, W., Arnell, N. W. and Prentice, I. C. (2006). A climate-change risk analysis for world ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 103, 13116–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siegenthaler, U., Stocker, T. F., Monnin, E.et al. (2005). Stable carbon cycle–climate relationship during the late Pleistocene. Science, 310, 1313–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sitch, S., Smith, B., Prentice, I. C., et al. (2003). Evaluation of ecosystem dynamics, plant geography and terrestrial carbon cycling in the LPJ dynamic global vegetation model. Global Change Biology, 9, 161–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staehr, P., Wernberg, T., Thomsen, M.et al. (2009). Global warming is eroding the resilience of kelp beds. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stampfli, A. and Zeiter, M. (2009). Prediction and mitigation of undesirable change in semi-natural grassland due to extreme droughts and hay management. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 312027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steffen, W., Burbidge, A., Hughes, L.et al. (2009). Australia's Biodiversity and Climate Change. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing.Google Scholar
Stone, R. (2007). A world without corals?Science, 316, 678–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tanzil, J. T. I., Brown, B. E., Tudhope, A. W. and Dunne, R. P. (2009). Decline in skeletal growth of the coralPorites lutea from the Andaman Sea, South Thailand between 1984 and 2005. Coral Reefs, 28, 519–28.Google Scholar
Tape, K., Sturm, M. and Racine, C. (2006). The evidence for shrub expansion in Northern Alaska and the Pan-Arctic. Global Change Biology, 12, 686–702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,TEEB (2008). The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. European Communities, http://www.teebweb.org.
Thomas, C. D., Cameron, A., Green, R. E.et al. (2004). Extinction risk from climate change. Nature, 427, 145–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buskirk, J., Mulvihill, R. S. and Leberman, R. C. (2009). Variable shifts in spring and autumn migration phenology in North American songbirds associated with climate change. Global Change Biology, 15, 760–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visser, M. E. and Both, C. (2005). Shifts in phenology due to global climate change: the need for a yardstick. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 272, 2561–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walther, G.-R., Post, E., Convey, P.et al. (2002). Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature, 416, 389–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warren, R., Price, J., Fischlin, A., Midgley, G. and Nava Santos, S. (2009). Increasing impacts of climate change upon ecosystems with increasing global mean temperature rise. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6, 302037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, C. (2008). Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008. Townsville, Australia: Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and Reef and Rainforest Research Centre.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, C. R. (1999). Global and local threats to coral reef functioning and existence: Review and predictions. Marine Freshwater Research, 50, 867–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, C. R. and Buddemeier, R. W. (1994). Global Climate Change and Coral Reefs: Implications for People and Reefs. Report of the UNEP-IOC-ASPEI-IUCN Global Task Team on the Implications of Climate Change on Coral Reefs. Gland: IUCN.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, C., Lindén, O., Cesar, H.et al. (1999). Ecological and socioeconomic impacts of 1998 coral mortality in the Indian Ocean: An ENSO impact and a warning of future change?Ambio, 28, 188–96.Google Scholar
Willis, K. J. and Bhagwat, S. A. (2009). Biodiversity and climate change. Science, 326, 806–07.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
,World Resources Institute (WRI) (2006). The value of coastal ecosystems. Earth Trends, November 2006 monthly update.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×