Climate change threatens even the most common species on Earth

(Researchers) - Researchers predict climate change will cause the disappearance of common plants and animals on a global scale.

More than half of all species of plants and a third of common animals may face serious threats this century due to climate change, according to a study by the University of East Anglia (UEA). good.

The study was published on May 12 in the Journal of Natural Climate Change (Nature Climate Change), which studied 50,000 common and widely distributed species of organisms worldwide and found half of plants and one-third of animals will lose half of their habitat by 2080 if there are no measures to reduce global warming and slow this situation.

That means that geographic areas of common plant and animal species will shrink on a global scale and biodiversity will decline worldwide.

Plants, reptiles and especially amphibians are expected to be at greatest risk. Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, Amazon and Australia are areas that will lose most plants and animals. And a large decline in the number of plant species is forecast for the regions of North Africa, Central Asia and Southwest Europe.

But quick action to mitigate climate change can reduce the decline in the number of species to 60% and create another 40 years for organisms to adapt. This happens because this mitigation can slow down and then stop the global average temperature increase of more than 2 degrees Celsius like the pre-industrial era (1765). Without this reduction, the earth's temperature could increase by 4 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The study is headed by Dr. Rachel Warren from UEA's School of Environmental Science and Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research (UEA's School of Environmental Sciences and the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research). The research collaborators included other researchers, including Dr. Jeremy VanDerWal at James Cook University in Australia and Dr. Jeff Price, a colleague of Dr. Roh Warren. The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Community Natural Research.

Dr Warren said: 'While there are many studies on the effects of climate change on rare and endangered species, we know very little about the effects of global warming. pray for common and more widely distributed species'.

'This broader issue of the potential for declining common species is an important consideration if even small reductions in these species can degrade the ecosystem.'

Our research has predicted that climate change will drastically reduce the diversity of even very popular species, widely distributed throughout the world. This global biodiversity decline could exhaust resources from ecosystems and biosphere.

We consider the impact of rising global temperatures, but other signs of climate change, such as extreme weather events, pests and diseases, mean that our estimates are reserved. Some animals decline more than our predictions, many animals can be lost due to the decline of plants as their food.

There will be impacts on people because these organisms are as important as other things like clean water and light, blood control, nutritional cycles and ecotourism.

The good news is, our research provides new crucial evidence of fast action to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases that can prevent biodiversity decline by reducing the total temperature. increase, only increase by 2 degrees C instead of 4 degrees C. This equates to about four decades for animal species that can adapt to survive when climate change raises the earth's temperature further. 2 degrees.

The team quantified the benefits of current action on climate change mitigation and found that up to 60% of climate degradation is planned because biodiversity can be avoided. OK.

Dr Warren said: 'Strictly promoting and managing actions to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions will reduce the above-mentioned biological degradation by 60% if global emissions peak in the year. 2016, or 40% if emissions peaked in 2030, suggesting that early action is essential. This will both reduce the amount of climate change while slowing down the process of climate change, creating conditions for organisms and people to be more adaptable to these changes. "

Information on the current status of the species distribution used in this study is provided by an online shared data system made by hundreds of volunteers, scientists and self-historical collections. through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

The co-author of the study, Dr. Jeff Price, also from UEA's School of Environmental Studies, said: ' Lack of free and free access to the total number of data as provided directly. free route through this GBIF, no independent researcher can contact every country, every museum, every scientist holding data and putting all this data together . So this study will not be possible without GBIF and the communities of scientists and volunteers who created this valuable and free data source. '