Himani Patel Assignment 2 Draft 1 English 1102 031 March 19, 2014

The Effects of Warming our Planet According to the article, Fingerprints of global warming on wild animals and plants, over the past 100 years, the global average temperature has increased by approximately 0.6 C and is projected to continue to rise at a rapid rate. Although species have responded to climatic changes throughout their evolutionary history, a primary concern for wild species and their ecosystems is this rapid rate of change. If it was more gradual, they would have a better rate of surviving and adapting. The researchers gathered information on species and global warming from 143 studies for meta-analyses. These analyses reveal a consistent temperature-related shift, or 'fingerprint', in species ranging from mollusks to mammals and from grasses to trees. Indeed, more than 80% of the species that show changes are shifting in the direction expected on the basis of known physiological constraints of species (Root et al). Consequently, the balance of evidence from these studies strongly suggests that a significant impact of global warming is already discernible in animal and plant populations. The synergism of rapid temperature rise and other stresses, in particular habitat destruction, could easily disrupt the connectedness among species and lead to a reformulation of species communities, reflecting differential changes in species, and to numerous extirpations and possibly extinctions. Climate change is a threat because species have evolved to live within certain temperature ranges, and when these are exceeded and a species cannot adapt to the new temperatures, or when the other species it depends on to live cannot adapt, for example its food supply, its survival is threatened. Species in the oceans and in fresh water are also at great risk from climate change, especially those that live in ecosystems like coral reefs that are highly

Comment [H1]: Create a cover page for title and header. Comment [H2]: For Conversation part of Intro, add why is this topic important to you? Also background info as to why you wrote this paper.

Comment [H3]: Different things we could normally do or what scientist could do to help with Global Warming.

Comment [H4]: Better transition between two paragraphs

Himani Patel Assignment 2 Draft 1 English 1102 031 March 19, 2014

sensitive to warming temperatures, but the full extent of that risk has not yet been calculated (Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss, Harvard Uni). The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) maintains the Red List to assess the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties, and even selected subpopulations on a global scale. Their data shows extinction risks outpace any conservation successes. I found that Amphibians are the most at risk, while corals have had a dramatic increase in risk of extinction in recent years. Research of long term trends in the fossil record suggests that natural speed limits constrain how quickly biodiversity can rebound after waves of extinction. Hence, the rapid extinction rates mean that it could take a long time for nature to recover (Shah, 2014) The scientists at Pelican Coast Conservancy used major vegetation types/biomes as proxies for natural habitats and, based on projected future biome distributions under doubled-CO2 climates, calculated changes in habitat areas and associated extinctions of endemic plant and vertebrate species in biodiversity hotspots. Because of numerous uncertainties in this approach, they undertook a sensitivity analysis of multiple factors that included: two global vegetation models, different numbers of biome classes in our biome classification schemes, different assumptions about whether species distributions were biome specific or not, and different migration capabilities. So basically, extinctions were calculated using both species-area and endemic-area relationships. In addition, average required migration rates were calculated for each hotspot assuming a doubled-CO2 climate in 100 years. They found that projected percent extinctions ranged from less than 1 to 43% of the endemic biota, which averages out to be 11.6%, with biome specificity having the greatest influence on the estimates, followed by the
Comment [H5]: Insert Headers so categories are more organized. Also specify things such as Intro/Background, etc.

Himani Patel Assignment 2 Draft 1 English 1102 031 March 19, 2014

global vegetation model and then by migration and biome classification assumptions (Jay et The most unique feature of Earth is the existence of life, and the most extraordinary feature of life is its diversity. Approximately 9 million types of plants, animals, protists and fungi inhabit the Earth. So, too, do 7 billion people. Two decades ago, at the first Earth Summit, the vast majority of the worlds nations declared that human actions were dismantling the Earths ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate. This observation led to the question of how such loss of biological diversity will alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper. Maintaining multiple ecosystem processes at multiple places and times requires higher levels of biodiversity than does a single process at a single place and time (Cardinale et al). One recent study compared 11 long-term experiments performed at one research site, and another used a suite of meta-analyses from published data to show that the impacts of species loss on primary productivity are of comparable magnitude to the impacts of drought, ultraviolet radiation, climate warming, ozone, acidification, elevated CO2, herbivory, fire and certain forms of nutrient pollution. Because the BEF relationship is nonlinear, the exact ranking of diversity relative to other drivers will depend on the magnitude of biodiversity loss, as well as magnitudes of other environmental changes. Nevertheless, these two studies indicate that diversity loss may have as quantitatively significant an impact on ecosystem functions as other global change stressors (for example, climate change) that have already received substantial policy attention (Cardinale et al). Diversity effects grow stronger with time, and may increase at larger spatial scales.
Comment [H7]: Add new Comment [H6]: Add intext citation.

Himani Patel Assignment 2 Draft 1 English 1102 031 March 19, 2014

Diversity effects in small-scale, short-term experiments may underestimate the impacts of diversity loss on the functioning of more natural ecosystems. At larger spatial scales and with greater temporal fluctuations, more environmental heterogeneity may increase opportunities for species to exploit more niches. Consistent with this argument, a growing body of research now shows that the net effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions grow stronger as experiments run longer (Cardinale et al). Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male parts to the female parts of a flower of the same species, which results in fertilization of plant ovaries and the production of seeds. Bees make excellent pollinators because most of their lives are spent collecting pollen, a source of protein that they feed to their developing offspring. When a bee lands on a flower, the hairs all over its body attract pollen grains through electrostatic forces. Widespread use of pesticides has been leading to the decimation of wild bee colonies. According to Suraj Pokhrel, who has been conducting research on wild bees, the pesticides used in commercial agriculture have resulted in a significant decline in the population of wild bees. In addition, deforestation and destruction of entire colonies during the honey harvest are other factors for the decline of bee colonies.Anand Poudel, a wild bee honey hunter, said that there had been a significant loss of wild bee colonies in recent times. "We don't see hives so much these days as we used to in past years," said Poudel who has been harvesting honey from giant cliffs in different parts of the Far Western Region for the last 48 years. Kaski, Lamjung and Myagdi contain major wild bee habitats. Nepal is home to four wild bee species out of the eight found across Asia, according to researchers. Since bees are the most important insects that transfer
Comment [H8]: Not smooth flowing, also what does pesticide have to do with Global Warming? This article used for what could happen if bees were no longer around.

Himani Patel Assignment 2 Draft 1 English 1102 031 March 19, 2014

pollen between flowers and plants, a decline in their numbers could affect food production and human livelihoods, added Pokhrel. It is said that bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. According to the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the worth of global crops with honeybee's pollination was estimated to be close to US$ 200 billion in 2005. References/Works Cited Amount of Old Ice in Arctic, 1987-2013. NOAA Climate, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-BbPBg3vj8>. Andreas Schuldt, Helge Bruelheide, Walter Durka, Stefan G. Michalski, Oliver Purschke, Thorsten Assmann Tree diversity promotes functional dissimilarity and maintains functional richness despite species loss in predator assemblages. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Published online: 6 October 2013. Plants Actively Clean Up Certain Types of Air Pollution Plexus Encyclopedia of Medicine, Science, and Technology, The Volume 7, Issue 38 January 17, 2011 Loraine Page Terry L. Root, Jeff T. Price, Kimberly R. Hall, Stephen H. Schneider, Cynthia Rosenzweig, J. Alan Pounds. Fingerprints of global warming on wild animals and plants. Letters to Nature Nature 421, 57-60 (2 January 2003) Accepted 26 November 2002 Shah, Anup. "Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions." Globalissues.org. Global Issues, 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-andextinctions>. Malcolm, Jay, Lara Hansen, and Ronald Neilson. "Global Warming and Extinctions of Endemic Species from Biodiversity Hotspots." Pelican Coast Conservancy, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. "Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss." The Center for Health and the Global Environment.
Comment [H9]: Conclusion, make suggestions and give ideas for future innovations that could potentially help reduce if not reverse the phenomenon.

Himani Patel Assignment 2 Draft 1 English 1102 031 March 19, 2014

Harvard University, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. <http://chge.med.harvard.edu/topic/climate-changeand-biodiversity-loss>.