Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity—The Setting of a Lingering Global Crisis
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Climate change has created potential major threats to global biodiversity. The multiple components of climate change are projected to affect all pillars of biodiversity, from genes over species to biome level. Of particular concerns are ―tipping points‖ where the exceedance of ecosystem thresholds will possibly lead to irreversible shifts of ecosystems and their functioning. As biodiversity underlies all goods and services provided by ecosystems that are crucial for human survival and wellbeing, this paper presents potential effects of climate change on biodiversity, its plausible impacts on human society as well as the setting in addressing a global crisis. Species affected by climate change may respond in three ways: change, move or die. Local species extinctions or a rapidly affected ecosystem as a whole respectively might move toward its particular ―tipping point‖, thereby probably depriving its services to human society and ending up in a global crisis. Urgent and appropriate actions within various scenarios of climate change impacts on biodiversity, especially in tropical regions, are needed to be considered. Foremost a multisectoral approach on biodiversity issues with broader policies, stringent strategies and programs at international, national and local levels is essential to meet the challenges of climate change impacts on biodiversity.
Details
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Diversity |
Volume | 5 |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
Scopus | 84878372895 |
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ORCID | /0000-0002-7190-0917/work/141545708 |
Keywords
Research priority areas of TU Dresden
Sustainable Development Goals
Keywords
- Climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services, tropical forests, tipping point