How climate change affects biodiversity

We could define biodiversity as all the variability of living beings , whether animals or plants, that exist on Earth, including the ecosystems and complexes of which they are part, such as, for example, grasslands, steppes, forests or inland water ecosystems and marine, among others. Therefore, it is the set of biological variety on the planet , although we can also refer to the variety of living beings in a specific area of ​​the planet.

The biodiversity that makes up ecosystems provides numerous goods and services that are essential for human survival. Many rural communities need the benefits of the natural environment for their ways of life.

But this biodiversity, regardless of its benefits to us, has intrinsic value in itself . In addition, ecosystems play a fundamental role in the biogeochemical processes responsible for the functioning of terrestrial systems.

The climate change is the name given to the change there in weather patterns climate of the entire planet Earth, when given significantly and lasts over time, extending a variable period of time, it can last for decades to millions of years.

Climate variability is normal per se , since it has always occurred on our planet, the most important being the variations that have occurred in glacial and interglacial cycles, which have occurred over 100,000 years. However, currently these climatic variations have been increased mainly by human causes. Consequently, scientists are currently working to understand what the past climate was like and, in this way, to be able to make an approximation of what it could be like in the future, thanks to the development of a climate record.

The loss of biodiversity has several causes, among which are:

• The overexploitation of the natural environment.
• The loss of the habitats of the species.
• Pollution of the environment.
• The introduction of invasive alien species.
• The effects of climate change, which possibly before the end of the century, will be considered the main cause of the loss of biological diversity .

Climate change is increasingly affecting the survival capacity of many species unable to adapt their needs to new environmental conditions (migrating, changing their behavior patterns or through genetic modifications, which entails a very long time frame), its conservation is difficult. This is especially notorious in populations of species with a low number of individuals or populations that, due to the place where they live (such as islands, high mountain areas or peninsulas), are not able to move to other similar habitats.

Climate change has many action points on the biodiversity of species. Some of the points that respond to how climate change affects biodiversity are:

• It alters basic functions of living beings, such as their growth rate or their behavior patterns.
• It produces changes in the populations of species, modifying their size or structure.
• It affects the structure of ecosystems and the cycles in which they intervene, such as decomposition processes, cycles and recycling of nutrients, water flows or interspecific interactions (between species).
• Landscape modifications of ecosystems.
• Changes in the intensity and regimes of these alterations that affect species and ecosystems.

If these changes continue to occur in an increasingly intense way, biodiversity will be seriously threatened with serious consequences, such as the extinction of a large number of species.

All actions aimed at conserving biodiversity must have as their main premise the species’ capacities to adapt to climate change. To do this, a key point would be to integrate biodiversity conservation policies and those aimed at alleviating climate change.

The European Union proposed a series of measures to deal with these effects on biodiversity and ecosystems of climate change. These propose to protect the integrity of the various ecosystems, as well as their ability to recover from these adverse conditions (resilience). On the other hand, the decisions taken should promote the conservation of natural spaces, especially protected natural spaces, which are increasing.

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