Using The Fossil Record And Predict Range Shifts Due For Near Future Climate Change

Climate change has affected us in many ways, but it was even more influential on organisms and their community. The Earth is gradually heating and we are left to deal with the consequences. Homes are being destroyed, organisms are dying, and resources are running low. Since 1880, Our Earth’s temperature had increased by about 0.8 degrees Celsius. Climate change is affecting the Earth and scientists say that one more degree will greatly affect people from all over the world. There are many consequences of climate change and each one has a great impact on all of us, but organisms’ homes are being destroyed and thousands of species are dying out. These organisms are imperative to our world and how it functions.

The article discussed the changes in many habitats due to anthropogenic activity. Anthropogenic is an adjective that describes changes in nature due to the people. Next, this article discussed climate change and the impact that it is having on species like clams, and fish due to ocean temperatures rising. The article also addressed carbon dating of fossils to look for cause of extinctions. Human development and agriculture have had a tremendous impact on the population of many species that are terrestrial. Deforestation is a big problem that has caused a decline in the bird species. Commercial fishing in many areas has led to a decline in fish populations. Furthermore this article

Climatic changes are expected to change species distributions, phenologies, interspecific interactions, community composition, and ecosystem function (Schneider & Root 2002). Many of these impacts have already been observed (Parmesan 2006). In California’s San Joaquin Valley, temperatures are projected to be warmer in both winter and summer, with a mean annual increase of 1.4–2.0°C by 2070 (PRBO Conservation Science 2011). Additionally, precipitation is projected to decrease (-9% to -30%), although there is a high degree of uncertainty surrounding the magnitude of the precipitation changes (PRBO Conservation Science 2011). Summer heat waves are projected to become longer and hotter, and droughts more severe (Garfin et al. 2012).

Shifts in temperature and precipitation will be a shock to fragile ecosystems which depend on specific climatic conditions. Many species will be unable to adapt as fast as their environment changes and face sharply reduced numbers or extinction. Scientists estimate that a warming of just 2 degree will put as many as 30% of the world's species at risk of extinction. Plants and animals aren’t the only ones feeling the pressure of changing ecosystems. Many regions will face severe water shortages in a warmer world, creating the potential for conflict. It is believed that the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region is at least in part a response to water shortages resulting from global warming.

With the increase in temperature, global warming is becoming more of a threat to many plants and animals (McCarty, 2001). In the past 100 years, the temperature has increased by 0.6° C. In North America, the temperature is expected to have a gradual increase of 0.3° C to

It has been observed through various researches that in the last century, average temperatures across the globe increased by over 1.3°F with an increase of more than two times in the Arctic. (Bates, Kundzewicz, Wu, & Palutikof, June 2008). The results of climate change can also be seen in changing precipitation patterns, increases in ocean temperatures, changes in the sea level, and acidity and melting of glaciers and sea ice (USEPA, 2014).

This report was prepared to reveal the effects of climate change on species. Climate change is a worrying issue that needs to be considered to lessen the degree of damage towards the environment. This includes phenological processes, which make species alter their characteristics to adapt to the changing environment. The species reported onto ClimateWatch could all be influenced by climate change, which can be attributed to their future endangerment or even

Climate change is approaching levels of Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum about 55.9 million years ago, when a large natural release of CO2 occurred. This paper looks at the difference between this period and anthropogenic CO2 release happening now over a much shorter period of time.

Global warming is a current issue that is only becoming grater as time pases. With global warming becoming a larger concern, habitats and their species are now slowly on the decline. This rise in higher temperatures can/will lead to the increase of extreme unexpected weather patterns in various regions (Anup Shah, 1998). This climate change will have the greatest threat to all the diverse range of species here on earth. Freshwater ecosystems are currently home to a diverse range of species, however with higher temperatures the survival of these species is at risk. These higher temperatures will affect water chemistry, preferred living temperatures, and water levels.

"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words” (Anna Sewell). There is undeniable evidence that animals are being affected by climate change. Even though the effects are difficult to measure, there are many different ways animals are being affected. With the loss of predator and prey species it affects the life cycles in the food chain. The earth’s climate change causes habitats such as snow, ice, or forest areas to alter, resulting in loss of habitat and food accessibility as well as causing extinction.

Natural climate change has influenced the Earth’s weather systems for over millions of years (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2016). This notion has been verified by studies which reveal that climate change has brought upon several, unprecedented alterations to the Earth’s landscape ever since the Earth came into existence (Hoffman, 2009). The commencing of the Ice Age, a period of time during which the planet’s surface was shrouded in ice, is commonly cited as evidence to ratify the claim made in the preceding sentence (Weart & American Institute of Physics, 2016).

It is clear, when evaluating the causes of decreasing biodiversity in the Arctic, that anthropogenic global warming is the main cause of the irreversible, drastic ecosystem alterations that hinder the biodiversity of the Arctic zone.

1. The predicted range of climate change by 2050 will place 15 to 35 percent of the 1,103 species studied at risk of extinction.

Climate change has been a long debated issue which is affecting Australia’s wide variety of fauna and flora which are unique to its lands. Due to climate change, we are damaging the current status of our fauna and flora. But the question is how does climate change affect our fauna and flora? According to most climate scientist the main cause of the current climate change is due to global warming which is caused by “human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" -- warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space” (Global Climate Change, 2014). With this trapped heat, Australia’s average temperature will gradually increase by an extra 1.5ᵒC by 2020 (Cooper & Dorey, 2013). Although this small rise in temperature may seem negligible to most people, however, it causes a drastic change to its extreme which may lead to more droughts, fires and floods which in hand affects the flora and fauna of Australia (Cooper & Dorey, 2013).

Climate change is one of the major issues surfacing earth over the past century. The earth’s temperature has increased over the years leading to detrimental effects on the economic and life sources of people, especially that of agricultural production and livestock. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2014), defined climate change as a change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid late 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, (2007) predicts that by 2100 the increase in global average surface temperature may be between 1.8° C and 4.0° C. With increases of 1.5° C to 2.5° C, approximately 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species are expected to be at risk of extinction. Moreover, the IPCC (2007)