1. Introduction
Vegetation is an important part of terrestrial ecosystems, playing a key role in land energy, water, and carbon cycle . Climate change has exerted significant positive and negative impacts on global vegetation growth. Vegetation changes in turn, will cause strong feedback into climate systems by regulating surface water, energy exchanges, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Green, Konings et al. 2017). Thus, a clear understanding of the relationships between vegetation and climate change is crucial for the forecasting of both future vegetation dynamics and climate change.
Global and regional vegetation changes have been extensively investigated through remote sensing techniques, in-situ observations, and plant growth modellings (Piao, Fang et al. 2003, Bradford, Lauenroth et al. 2006, Fensholt, Langanke et al. 2012, Chen and Weber 2014, Zhu, Piao
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2016). Traditionally, vegetation changes are mainly attributed to climatic drivers, despite a dominating CO2 influence being reported by a recent investigation. Global vegetation can be divided into water-, temperature- and solar radiation- limited growth regions. Moreover, the combination of these climatic factors also determines the distribution of plants types, with each type showing a clear correspondence with differing climates. Previous investigations suggest that both the rate and the magnitude of climate change have profound impacts on vegetation growth (Garcia, Cabeza et al. 2014, Seddon, Macias-Fauria et al. 2016), thereby causing a change in vegetation in response to climate change. For example, researchers have observed a weakening relationship between vegetation and temperature in northern high latitudes where temperature limited growth areas (Piao, Nan et al. 2014, Piao, Liu et al. 2017). Over the past several decades, climate change has presented great asymmetry
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC) was established in 1988, reported in 2007 in “very high confidence” that since 1750 human activity has played a major part in overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. Whether it’s through cellular respiration or the burning of fossil fuels is debatable. Cellular respiration is a process of creating energy and it takes place in all living things, even in plants. Carbon dioxide, oxygen, light and water are important factors in this process. Keeping a balance level of carbon dioxide is crucial to the earth’s atmosphere, because if it gets too high, it increases the average temperature on earth, which is unfortunately what we are dealing with and call “global warming”. I believe cellular respiration does not affect global warming as greatly as industrial fossil fuels do.
Tim Dickinson paints this image into one’s head by the end of his article. Looking at global warming as a crisis, he argues that the continuously heating world is intensifying drought and setting the stage for mega fires, even in places like Alaska. According to Dickinson, humans are the main cause of global warming. This creates a dramatic problem, Dickinson explains, because Alaska has a large tundra that is drying out. The tundra is an important biome; it can store vast amounts of carbon dioxide in the ground. When these areas burn because of drought, they release huge amounts of carbon dioxide that is normally hidden under snow (Dickinson). On the other hand, Peter Minorsky writes that global warming can lead to more plant growth. Minorsky’s evidence complicates Dickinson’s ideas. There is even an indication of growth increases in Alaska from aerial photos dating back from 50 years ago to now in his article. He writes that there is already “evidence that many plant species are beginning to invade formerly colder climes as the world’s temperature begun to rise” (Minorsky). This pole ward invasion of plant life, according to Minorsky, obscures Dickinson’s Alaskan example. If there is growth happening, the fiery images seem to burn out, or at least appear as an
The plants we grow for food needs specific resources to thrive, which includes the night temperature and enough water. A changing climate could create a lot of problems. Climate change could make it too hot and also make it too cold to grow crops in some areas of the world and also climate change can cause drought, which is made by the unavailability of water for irrigation. Climate change is likely to cause stronger storms and more floods, which will damage the crops. . Latin America and Southern Asia is seeing it in lethal storms and floods whereas Europeans are experiencing it in melting glaciers, forest fires and disastrous heat waves (Pearce, 2006). Deforestation is another anthropogenic factor that is causing climate change because of the need for fossil fuel, agricultural lands are being used. Forests are being burnt down by humans on a daily basis. As agricultural lands becomes less in need of growing population, people extend their space by cutting and clearing forest. The land beneath the forest sometimes tends to be unproductive and lacks the natural chemicals for a growing. The plantation will serve as a source of food for a few years after then the land becomes useless because of its infertility, it nutrients get depleted and used up. Deforestation results in numerous problems such as destruction of our natural resources, ecosystem, wildlife,
When sunlight is emitted from the sun it is either reflected or absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere. The reason for this is because the sun’s rays are either absorbed or reflected according to the dark and light colors of the earth’s surface. But the deforestation and urbanization of the terrain on the earth is damaging this effect by changing the way the earth’s landscape visually appears. Deforestation and Urbanization causes drastic climate changes in the specific areas in which they occur, because of the constant changing of the visual appearance of the earth’s surface. If the climate seems strange or sporadic within the general area in which you live either deforestation or urbanization may be to blame. This kind of human activity is continuing to change the earth’s reflectivity. Reflectivity and its effects may seem small when observed together as a whole across the earth; but it has caused global change due to the sporadic c...
Throughout history climates have drastically changed. There have been shifts from warm climates to the Ice Ages (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.204). Evidence suggests there have been at least a dozen abrupt climate changes throughout the history of the earth. There are a few suspected reasons for these past climate changes. One reason may be that asteroids hitting the earth and volcanic eruptions caused some of them. A further assumption is that 22-year solar magnetic cycles and 11-year sunspot cycles played a part in the changes. A further possibility is that a regular shifting in the angle of the moon orbiting earth causing changing tides and atmospheric circulation affects the global climate (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.205). Scientific studies suggest that all these played a role in past global warming and cooling periods. Today, however, there is a lot of conflict on whether humans are causing a global warming that could be disastrous to humans and all species of plants and animals on this earth. This paper will first explain the greenhouse effect, then take a look at both sides argument, and, finally, analyze the effect of global warming on world-wide sustainability
Willmer, P.. Ecology: Pollinator – Plant Synchrony Tested by Climate Change. Current Biology. Volume 22, Issue 4, 21 Feb 2012, Pages R131 – R132.
One of the impacts of climate change is that as the temperatures in cooler parts of the world change and become warmer, this will allow that place to be more habitable to other different types of food crops, thus expanding the area in which these crops can be grown. For example, less frequent freezes will allow crops like citrus to be planted and gro...
“Climate change: How do we know?” NASA. NASA n. d. n. pag. Web. 28 November
Thousands of species have become extinct over the last four decades as a result of changes in land use and as a result of global warming. Whether or not the millions of species can adapt and evolve to climate changes is debatable. As this brief overview will report, the human species is not adapting well to the changes. It must be remembered that increases in the levels of carbon dioxide are certainly responsible for the risk many species face, but so is the way land is used, e.g., rain forest destruction. There is a feedback loop wherein plant life and the climate are interdependent. Each affects the other. When forests are cut down, temperatures in that area will rise. Rising temperatures cause other plant life requiring cooler temperatures To die off.
Thesis: Forests provide the earth with a regulated climate, strong biodiversity, and good nutrient rich soil for plants to strive on.
The world’s climate is kept stable and suitable to live in, mainly by rainforests, in a number of ways. They are often known as ‘climate controllers’. They keep the planet cool, as they absorb much of the suns heat, instead of reflecting it back into the atmosphere.
Climate Change is any substantial change in climate that lasts for an extended period of time. One contributor to current climate change is global warming, which is an increase in Earth’s average temperature. Plants and animal species throughout the world are being affected by rising temperatures. Many plants are flowering earlier now than they once did; animals, such as the yellowbellied marmot, are emerging from hibernation earlier; and many bird and butterfly species are migrating north and breeding earlier in the spring than they did a few decades ago, all because of slight changes in temperature cues. (Shuster)
Climate change is one of the major issues surfacing earth over the past century. The earth’s temperature has increased over the years leading to detrimental effects on the economic and life sources of people, especially that of agricultural production and livestock. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2014), defined climate change as a change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid late 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, (2007) predicts that by 2100 the increase in global average surface temperature may be between 1.8° C and 4.0° C. With increases of 1.5° C to 2.5° C, approximately 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species are expected to be at risk of extinction. Moreover, the IPCC (2007) purported that climate change has severe consequences for food security in developing countries. There are numerous factors that are solely responsible for this change which are both natural and man-made. Climate change has led to a decrease in quality and quantity of plant produce and livestock because of heat stress, drought and an increase in plant and animal diseases.
In many parts of the world, ecosystems’ temperatures begin to rise and fall to extreme levels making it very difficult for animals and plants to adapt in time to survive. Climate has never been stable here on Earth. Climate is an important environmental influence on ecosystems. Climate changes the impacts of climate change, and affects ecosystems in a variety of ways. For instance, warming could force species to migrate to higher latitudes or higher elevations where temperatures are more conducive to their survival. Similarly, as sea level rises, saltwater intrusion into a freshwater sys...
One of the reasons for loss in biodiversity is alteration of habitats. A habitat is the natural environment in which a species of living organism lives. If the habitat of a species is changed, it will cause the species to die or migrate to other places where it can find its natural habitat. There are many ways in which the habitat of plants and animals can be altered. One of them is land use changes. Since the beginning of human life, human beings have been changing land use for farming. Large areas of forests have been cleared by humans to increase the area of farming to satisfy their growing needs. Many biodiversity-rich landscape characteristics have been lost due to intensive farming (Young, Richards, Fischer, Halada, Kull, Kuzniar, Tartes, Uzunov & Watt, 2007). For example, traditional farming was replaced by private farms in Europe after the First World War causing an immense change in land use patterns. Another major proble...