Global warming is already changing life
Climate change is already altering the picture.
It is not unusual to read climate research that centers on a specific area or region impacted by climate change. But this study, “The Broad Footprint of Cimate Change from Genes to Biomes to People,” focuses on the big picture.
“Individual impacts are accumulating and being amplified more broadly,” wrote the authors of the study, published Nov. 11.
Species are undergoing evolutionary adaptation, they report. For example:
- Scientists are observing changes in plants and animals. “Temperate plants are budding and flowering earlier in spring and later in autumn. Comparable adjustments have been observed in marine and freshwater fish spawning events and in the timing of seasonal migrations of animals worldwide.”
- Once frozen regions are increasingly more inviting to life. “Tropical and boreal species are increasingly incorporated into temperate and polar communities, respectively, and when possible, lowland species are increasingly assimilating into mountain communities,” the study said.
- The changes will have an impact on humans, possibly threatening the food supply. These changes “at different levels of biological organization point toward an increasingly unpredictable future for humans," the study said. "Reduced genetic diversity in crops, inconsistent crop yields, decreased productivity in fisheries from reduced body size, and decreased fruit yields from fewer winter chill events threaten food security.”
Studying the changes could help humans adapt. The research was led by Brett R. Scheffers, assistant professor at University of Florida’s Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department.
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