Environmental Science - AoS 1 | Chapter 9

Managing Climate Change

Changes to temperature and climate in Australia’s climate:

• Rainfall is expected to decrease over mainland and increase over Tasmania, with an overall increase in summer.

• The frequency and intensity of rainfall is likely to increase

• Snow and ice cover will decrease.

• There will be an increased number of hot days and bushfires.

Impacts on the ecosystem because of Climate Change

• It will reduce species ability to fight disease, as they will be spending a lot of their energy finding food, shelter and adapting to new conditions

• Reduce genetic diversity as there will be smaller populations and less food as more organisms focus on surviving rather than reproducing

• Altered ecosystem function as there will loss of plant and animal species which play critical roles in their ecosystems

• Reduce ecosystem resilience – which is the ability for an ecosystem to adapt, recover from and withstand changes

• If one species go extinct it will mean others that depend on these species will also go extinct

What will happen when there is a range in exotic species?

As species extend their range, they encounter new ecosystems that may not be used to their presence, changing the composition of communities, which can negatively impact the local ecosystem and cause loss of native species.

What will happen to insect population changes?

• Changing of temperature and rainfall may change distribution of insect pests as the warmer conditions may extend breeding seasons.

• Some of these species may be able to move to warmer climates they were unable to access due to it being too cold.

• This will likely increase insect borne diseases as animals such as mosquitos have favorable conditions for reproduction and survival meaning they will have more opportunities to bite people and increase disease transmission.

What are the impact on the breeding cycle due to climate change?

• Climate change may impact when food is available.

• These animals will still breed at the same time, but there will be a lack of food so young may be born will a lower chance of survival.

• Males and females may migrate to a specific location to breed and their migrating cues may change causing the timing so the males and the females do not meet at the same time.

• Breeding habitats may become more limited as climate change may make breeding areas less inhabitable

Phenological change

Refers to shifts in the timing of seasonal events like plants flowering, migration of birds and breeding seasons caused by climate change.

How can Phenological change disrupt plants-pollinator interactions?

• If flowers bloom too late or bees arrive too early, both may miss crucial interactions, threatening both their survival.

• This can have a lead on effect as many organisms rely on plants as food sources and pollinators help these plants to reproduce.

• If the plants do not reproduce this means other organisms in the food chain are also affected.

How has human changes contributed to climate change?

Flooding

• Sea level rises will cause erosion of soil decreasing the fertility of soil

• Increase flooding as more ocean water evaporating which will result in more heavy and shorter rainfall periods. Increased flooding will also occur as the ocean levels are rising, so coastal areas will be impacted during high tide and storms.

Salination of stored water

• As increase in evaporation occurs water will be evaporated from lakes and reservoirs increasing the salinity of water.

• Rising sea levels can also push salt water into costal aquifers contaminating it with salt.

Altered tourism

• As earth warms up some popular tourist destinations will become less popular as they are too warm during certain periods of the year

• Natural tourism sites will also disappear and become less appealing as much of the biodiversity will be lost.

Positives of Agriculture Production?

• The increase levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will provide favorable growing conditions.

• Photosynthesis plants which will increase the growth and population of many plant species as they can use this CO2 this is called CO2 fertilization.

• More wood will be produced under climate change as growing seasons will be longer and there is more CO2 to use for photosynthesis.

Negatives of Agriculture Production?

• There will be changes to pest distribution as the temperature warms their range will increase. This means farmers will have to use more pesticides to deal with pest species.

• Changes to water availability as rainfall will change where some areas will receive less rain and others more rain. This will affect their ability to grow crops as water is a requirement for photosynthetic plants.

• Extreme weather events like drought and floods will become more common and will impact farmers ability grow crops.

• Soil fertility and quality will decrease due to increase in evaporation which will dry out soil.

• Loss in soil biodiversity as some soil organisms are unable to adapt to the changing climates.

• Climate change will reduce the frequency of cold events (lower then 0C) this means that fruit trees such as apples which rely on these cold events to flower and produce fruit will yield less fruit and produce fruit of lower quality.

• This will overall reduce the income of farmers and increase cost for the consumer.

Mitigation

Involves taking steps to reduce or avoid emissions to minimize the rate and the speed of climate change.

Mitigation Examples

• Reducing personal electricity use

• Increase the uptake of renewable energy – burning of fossil fuels are unsustainable and release lots of green house gases during the extraction, burning and use for electricity.

• Improving industrial processes to increase energy efficiency – the less energy industrial process require the less fossil fuels need to be burned

• Reducing waste and pollution – minimizing waste via transporting goods and materials, reduce the amount of methane produced by pollution.

• Uptake and increase the use of sustainable transport such as using public transport

• Enhancing carbon sinks by replanting vegetation and maintaining vegetation of significance

Adaptation

Are taking steps to prepare and respond to the effects of climate change as to minimize their impact.

Adaptation Examples

• Changing land use to protect buildings and infrastructure from existing and new hazards.

• Upgrading design of buildings and infrastructure to protect from wind damage in areas expected to see an increase in storms

• Adjusting activities and life style to prevent additional stress on already stressed environments.

• Update emergency and business planning as the economic cost of natural disasters in Australia rises.

• Increase community understanding of climate change and build capacity in the community to adapt to climate change.