Global Climate Change and Biodiversity

Today, the impacts of global warming and climate change have become a source of serious concern to scientists, resource managers and world leaders alike. According to Jian, S., Di-qiang, L. & Wen-fa, the two phenomena are not new, but the need come up with very pragmatic measures to at least reduce the phenomena continue to elicit unending debates owing to the increase in human anthropogenic activities (2006).

Ideally, global warming and climate have great negative impact on earth’s geographical, physiological and biological components. Ideally, global warming and climate have great negative impact on earth’s geographical, physiological and biological components. In Australia’s Austral spring, a group of scientists monitored the hatching of bird eggs, Petroica redbackii, to help understand the impact of global climate change on biodiversity. By rationale, the premise of this paper was pegged on the presumption that global climate change has significant evolutionary impact on biodiversity, especially those present in the northern latitudes.

It is even intriguing how Hoffmann, A. A. & Sgro, C. M claim that evolutionary adaption can happen very fast

It is even intriguing how Hoffmann, A. A. & Sgro, C. M claim that evolutionary adaption can happen very fast, meaning that the affected biodiversity, in this case birds have to adapt as well to the prevailing harsh ecological conditions poised by comate change (2015). It is believed that significantly warmer springs prompt earlier mating in birds, leading to a temporal mismatch with the egg hatching time. Possibly, this is because some birds are migratory whereas as others are not. According to Mayor et al., migratory birds, unlike other forms of biodiversity, adapt very fast the ever changing unfavorable environmental conditions which tend to have significant phenological change on living organisms. It is worth noting that population of the population of Petroica redbackii have remained significantly unchanged because developed adaptive measures by changing their migratory and reproduction patterns. Therefore, depending on the type of bird species, gradual rise in temperature and possible mismatch of bird egg hatching could lead to significant loss in biodiversity (Chambers, et al., 2005).

References

Chambers, L. E., Hughes, L., & Weston, M. A. (2005). Climate change and its impact on Australia’s avifauna. Journal of Royal Australasian Ornithologist Union 2005, 1-20.

Hoffmann, A. A. & Sgro, C. M. (2011, Feb. 24). Climate change and evolutionary adaption. Journal of Nature, 470, 475-85.

Jian, S., Di-qiang, L. & Wen-fa, X. (2006). A review of Impacts of climate change on birds: Implications of long-term studies. Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, 27(6), 637-46.

Mayor, S. J., et al. (2016, May 15). Increasing phonological asynchrony between spring green-up and arrival of migratory birds. Journal of Scientific Reports, 1-11.