Introduction
Throughout the Anthropocene, the two most significant human influences on ecosystems have been climate change and habitat loss. Globally, ongoing habitat degradation is expected to trigger the extinction of around 1,700 vertebrate species by 2070 (Canning & Waltham, 2021). The global community is focused on implementing measures to address the changing climate and its resultant impacts. The changing climatic conditions create adverse weather events and topographical changes that directly result in the loss of vital natural habitats necessary for the survival of numerous plant and animal species.
The Changing Climate
Climate change has the potential to degrade existing ecosystems and diminish access to natural resources such as water. When habitats and nourishment become scarce, wild animals often attack domesticated animals and food crops, raising the danger of human-wildlife conflict (Groc, 2021). The changing climate endangers people and ecosystems while exacerbating current strains.
Many species are unable to deal with the present changes in the environment, particularly when their resistance has already been compromised by habitat loss, the depletion of resources, pollution, and the invasion of alien species (Groc, 2021). According to the UN, approximately one million species are on the verge of extinction worldwide (Groc, 2021). The threat posed by a changing climate on wild habitats is, therefore, incontrovertible.
A Warming Planet
The focus of the global community is to minimize the rise in global temperature. Although the proposed half-a degree may seem minor, the anticipated harm to unique and vulnerable systems grows exponentially between a 1.5°C limit and greater temperature rises (Groc, 2021). The Special Report on Global Warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasizes major distinctions in climatic dangers at 1.5°C and two °C and greater degrees of warming on land and in the seas (Groc, 2021). Droughts and torrential downpours are expected to become more common.
Vulnerable groups who rely on agricultural or coastal areas for their livelihoods are expected to bear the brunt of the consequences and will increasingly confront food insecurity (Groc, 2021). They will undoubtedly profit from rigorous adherence to the Paris objectives. At 1.5°C, maize, rice, wheat, and other cereal crop yields will still be reduced (Groc, 2021). However, the reduction will be much smaller than a higher rise in temperature. The impact of the evolving climatic conditions is illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Adverse Weather Events
Fire is an essential driver of carbon cycles and plant restoration. While wildfires are a part of nature, catastrophic fire incidents in the twenty-first century indicate that changing climatic conditions are influencing fire regimes. High-intensity fires have erupted in areas and seasons when they have never occurred before.
The 2019-2020 Black Summer period in Australia resulted in the devastation of 5.5 million hectares or approximately 7% of New South Wales, which is four times the extent of damage recorded in preceding fire seasons (Shabani et al., 2023). Over 450 vulnerable plant species and 293 endangered animal species live in the Black Summer fires’ footprint, and the fires have harmed the long-term well-being of a considerable number of these organisms (Shabani et al., 2023).
Furthermore, during the Black Summer fires, seventeen of Australia’s twenty-two major vegetation groups had more widespread blazes and more intense burning temperatures than ever before (Shabani et al., 2023). With a total of 1.14 mega hectares burned, Eucalypt tall open forests were among the most badly damaged of these vegetation categories (Shabani et al., 2023). Extreme weather conditions are detrimental to the planet’s natural habitats.
Natural Habitat Loss
The planet is currently experiencing the sixth mass extinction, which has been exacerbated, and climate change is hastening the disaster. The changing climate is affecting the current habitat ranges of living organisms in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments (Abbass et al., 2022). Changes in general climatic regimes have a variety of effects on ecosystem integrity, including changes in the distribution and abundance of species, range shifts, variations in activity timing, and microhabitat utilization (Abbass et al., 2022).
Any species’ global range is often defined by its capacity to withstand environmental pressures, biological interactions, and dispersion limitations (Abbass et al., 2022). The Bramble Cay melomys was the first mammal species to become extinct as a result of human-linked climatic change (Groc, 2021). The habitat of the little rat-like rodent, which was unique to a small island near the northern extremity of the Great Barrier Reef, was devastated by the rise in sea levels (Groc, 2021). It is worth noting that the changing climate will push many more species to extinction.
The current climatic conditions are the direct effect of years of human activity. Since the Industrial Revolution, the mean global surface temperature has increased by approximately one °C (Groc, 2021). The effects of the rise are evident everywhere, from tropical jungles to lonely mountaintops and marshes to the frozen desolation of the polar regions. Extreme occurrences such as protracted heatwaves and wildfires, warming oceans, recurrences of coral bleaching episodes, receding glaciers, and rising sea levels are becoming more common (Groc, 2021). Climate change has influenced all forms of flora and fauna on every continent of the planet. Higher temperatures can change a species’ appropriate range, interrupt its life cycle, and heighten the frequency and severity of catastrophic events that directly influence their native habitats.
Most species developed to thrive in a certain ecological niche, as evidenced by their historical distribution. On the one hand, some animals may develop the capacity to adapt to greater temperatures and shifting patterns of precipitation. On the other hand, others will need to move in search of preferable climatic conditions, often heading towards the poles and up hills to locate more appropriate cooler habitats.
Many species’ ranges in the United Kingdom, including birds, butterflies, moths, and dragonflies, have relocated northwards over the previous forty years (Groc, 2021). Changing oceanic conditions have resulted in range changes among highly migratory organisms. Earlier this century, there was a dramatic change in the migratory path of northeast Atlantic mackerel stock towards Greenland’s seas (Groc, 2021). However, some species are incapable of migrating given that their habitat is too uncommon or fragmented or because it is too difficult to access due to natural or man-made obstacles.
Forest Habitats
Forests form a critical element of the ecosystem in which numerous animal and plant species thrive. Forests are the earth’s primary climate moderators, given that they play an essential role in controlling planetary carbon and nitrogen cycles (Abbass et al., 2022). As a result, disruptions in forest ecology have an impact on both the micro and macroclimates (Abbass et al., 2022). Climatic changes significantly influence the development and productivity of transboundary forest areas by altering temperature and rainfall patterns.
Because the changing climate causes specific alterations in the typical composition and characteristics of ecosystems, as well as impacts forest health, fluctuating weather patterns have a number of devastating consequences. They include forest fires, severe droughts, pest infestations, and the devastation of the economic well-being of forest-dependent communities (Abbass et al., 2022). The aforementioned conditions are unsuitable for the survival of species that reside in forest habitats.
Droughts, which are becoming more frequent and intense, pose several challenges to the world’s forests. It is worth noting that droughts are expected to worsen in the near future. The changing climate is characterized by storms, which have significant consequences on global forest survival. The influence of storms is amplified by heavier winter precipitation with matching wetter soils, which results in poor root anchorage for trees (Abbass et al., 2022). Soaring temperature regimes induce changes in normal rainfall patterns, which impedes the survival of temperate forests, given the increased exposure to extreme stress and disruptions that harm native tree species (Abbass et al., 2022). The loss of trees destroys forest habitats on which many animals depend.
Wetland Habitats
Wetlands are considered to be among the most threatened of the planet’s ecosystems. Canning and Waltham (2021) define wetlands as places of permanent or occasional inundation with stationary or moving fresh, brackish, or salty water. It is estimated that 100% of wetlands will suffer the most from habitat loss and fragmentation brought on by a changing climate, with rainforests coming in second at 45.3% (Canning & Waltham, 2021).
Freshwater habitats, which cover approximately 1% of the planet’s surface, are responsible for 10% of the world’s animal species (Canning & Waltham, 2021). Because freshwater is scarce, the majority of freshwater ecosystems are highly exploited by humans, primarily through habitat conversion for agricultural purposes and urban housing, pollution, and the extraction of water for irrigation and dams. The resulting pressure on the habitat, especially when resources are exploited using unsustainable tactics, promotes the loss of biodiversity.
Lowland Coastal Areas
The changing climatic conditions have already resulted in higher global temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and an increased frequency of extreme weather events. Climate change-related sea-level rise is also predicted to have a negative impact on biodiversity and wild habitats in coastal low-lying areas (Mukul et al., 2019). Tropical Asia is highly susceptible to climate change and sea-level rise, in addition to having one of the planet’s highest rates of deforestation (Mukul et al., 2019). This part of the world is also home to a high number of vulnerable and endemic species, making integrated evaluation and planning for successful protection in the context of climate change and related events crucial.
Asia’s coastal lowland areas form a large part of the planet’s remaining tiger habitat. The Earth’s tiger population has shrunk to 3890 individuals, with most of the animals largely concentrated in protected regions (Mukul et al., 2019). Tiger habitats cover around 1.5 million square kilometers, accounting for about 7% of their original range (Mukul et al., 2019).
The Sundarbans mangrove forest, with an area of around 10,263 km2, is the planet’s biggest contiguous mangrove forest, spanning the distance between Bangladesh and India (Mukul et al., 2019). It is also the globe’s only mangrove forest with tigers and one of the world’s largest surviving Bengal tiger habitats (Mukul et al., 2019).
The Sundarbans geographical location makes it one of Earth’s largest and most dynamic delta systems (Mukul et al., 2019). The region is at the forefront of climate change and associated occurrences. Mukul et al. (2019) note that the changing climate has altered the Sundarbans’ flora, salinity, and sedimentation rate. Mukul et al. (2019) further note that most of the Sundarbans’ mean elevation is less than a meter above sea level. As a result, the area is especially susceptible to rising sea levels.
The survival of habitats in areas that are susceptible to rising sea levels has generated immense scientific curiosity. For instance, Mukul et al. (2019) discovered a significant drop in healthy Bengal tiger habitats in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans. Their study revealed that the changing climate has a greater impact on Bengal tiger habitats than sea level rise alone in the area (Mukul et al., 2019). The changing climate and rising sea level will aggravate the situation in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans. The model used by Mukul et al. (2019) predicted that there will be a complete elimination of Bengal tiger habitats in the Sundarbans by 2070. Habitats in low-lying coastal areas are at risk of destruction as a result of the effects of a changing climate.
Conclusion
The evolving climatic conditions are a threat to the well-being of natural habitats and the various plant and animal species that reside within them. Rising global temperatures have precipitated adverse events such as droughts, rising sea levels, and catastrophic fires, which have decimated the natural landscape. The conditions in traditional habitats have turned hostile, and species that are incapable of adapting have been forced to move or face extinction. As the sixth mass extinction unfolds, the impact of climatic change is incontrovertible. It is vital to address the rise in global temperature to save the Earth’s natural habitats and the plant and animal species without which humanity is incapable of surviving.
References
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Groc, I. (2021). Feeling the heat: The fate of nature beyond 1.5oC of global warming. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Web.
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