Biodiversity collapse due to climate change
Study maps over 100 locations of tropical forests, coral reefs
London, Jan. 27: Climate change and pressure from human activity is causing a collapse in global biodiversity and ecosystems across the tropics, according to a study published on Monday.
Researchers, including those from Lancaster University in the UK, mapped over 100 locations worldwide where tropical forests and coral reefs have been affected by climate extremes such as hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, droughts and fires.
The study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society B, provides an overview of how these diverse ecosystems are being threatened by a combination of climate change, increasingly extreme weather, and damaging local human activities.
The researchers noted that only international action to decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions can reverse this trend. “Tropical forests and coral reefs are very important for global biodiversity, so it is extremely worrying that they are increasingly affected by both climate disturbances and human activities,” lead researcher Filipe Franca from the Embrapa Amazonia Oriental in Brazil.
“Many local threats to tropical forests and coral reefs, such as deforestation, overfishing, and pollution, reduce the diversity and functioning of these ecosystems,” Franca said.
This in turn, he said, can make the ecosystems less
Tropical forests and coral reefs are very important for global biodiversity, so it is extremely worrying that they are increasingly affected by both climate disturbances and human activities
— FILIPE FRANCA
Lead researcher
able to withstand or recover from extreme weather. The researchers noted that climate change is causing more intense and frequent storms and marine heatwaves.
“For coral reefs, such extreme events reduce live coral cover and cause longlasting changes to both coral and fish communities, compounding local threats from poor water quality and overfishing,” said Cassandra E. Benkwitt, a marine ecologist from Lancaster University.
“Although the long-term trajectory for reefs will depend on how extreme events interact with these local stressors, even relatively pristine reefs are vulnerable to both climate change and extreme weather,” Benkwitt said.