Conservation of flora and fauna in global warming

Global warming and climate change has become a global issues and concern within the regional and international levels. In the context of national scope, this issues had grew stronger after Indonesia had been selected to become host of the 13th Conference of the Party to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 13). The venue took place in Denpasar, Bali.

Our earth has already experienced the phenomena of global warming and climate change which leads to hazardous climate events. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released numbers of research which has proved that the earth are warming and climate are changing. The IPCC is an independent scientific body under the UNFCCC.
The phenomena of hazardous climate events has an enormous impact to the environment and human livelihood. Global warming and unpattern climate changes threatened farming for food security, clean water availability, human and ecosystem health. Global warming also threatened the existence of small island nations because of the rising of sea level.

Eventhough climate changes has become global issue, but there are still many communities around the world who has not known and understand what is global warming and climate changes. Many of us living in developing countries are limited to information on global warming and climate changes. For many developing countries like Indonesia, efforts to develop public awareness on global warming and climate changes are urgently needed in order to enhance public understanding on the issues.

In the efforts of spreading awareness on global warming and climate change, Peka Indonesia collaborating with IISES and TMII conducted one day seminar on global warming and climate change. The seminar was conducted on January 22nd 2007 in Indonesian Miniature Garden, Jakarta with seminar theme "Conservation of Flora and Fauna in the middle of changing climate and global warming"

The aim of this one day seminar is to spread out informations on global warming and climate change to the public especially for the staffs of Indonesian Miniature Garden. Participants will received informations on the effect of global warming to the existence of biodiversity, how we can contribute to minimize carbon emission, and how we can actively involve in the conservation of our nature environment. Thus we can minimize the effects of global warming.

On this one day seminar, we invited Dr. Sony Keraf (former minister of environment) as a key note speaker. Dr Keraf gave presentation on the science of global warming and climate change and efforts initiate by countries in the world to adapt to climate change. We also invited 5 other speaker to give prensentation on this seminar, they are, Dr. Suryo Wiyon (Department of Agriculture, IPB), Kuswandono (Gede Pangrango National Park), Dr. Rosicon Ubaidilah (Indonesian Institute of Science), and Arif (Pelangi Foundation). These five speaker gave presentations on the topic of global warming and its effect to the earth environment, effect of global warming to flora and fauna, socializing the result of UNFCCC Bali 2007, and opportunity for public involvement to reduce the effect of global warming. The seminar was attended by 150 participant, mostly from staffs of Indonesian Miniature Garden and several from public in general. We sees that forum-forum seminar like this are still needed in order to spread out the information on global warming and climate change. We envision that through good understanding, the public will increase their awareness toward global warming and will initiate an action to contribute on reducing carbon emission, thus minimalizing the hazardous effects of global warming and climate change.

The impact of the greenhouse effect on natural terrestrial environments:

The public is increasingly aware of the significance of the greenhouse effect. There is an expectation that Governments will take preventative and remedial action urgently. However, in the ecological arena there is as yet no consensus about how this should be done.

For example, ecological theory suggests that big changes in climate will, over sufficient time, result in major changes in the species composition and relative abundance of species within ecological communities. But these changes could arise because of species adaptation and evolution in situ, or because of migration to 'track' appropriate climatic conditions. Or, of course, a mixture of the two.

In south eastern Australia there has been a great deal of movement of ecological communities as the climate has gradually changed. The very gradual drying and warming as the continent has drifted,north has resulted in the replacement of most of the rainforest communities with dry-environment communities. Very few species that were once part of the rainforest seem to have evolved into new varieties or species adapted to hotter, drier conditions.

This history suggests that the correct conservation strategy for our flora and fauna is for them to be allowed or assisted to migrate as the climatic bands move. Otherwise it appears that they will perish. The Bio-Clim models showing climatic zones moving hundreds of kilometres, in some cases, reinforce the notion that species or ecological community mobility is important. People even talk of whole nature reserves or Parks being 'in the wrong place' and imply that they should somehow be 'moved'. So the strategy that comes to mind as being the most significant is the maintenance or indeed the re-establishment of corridors to provide for the necessary movement.

However this 'evidence' does not capture all of what is going on. An alternative history has played itself out in special circumstances. For example, on permanent islands, temporary islands (like the Grampians) and in quasi-islands caused by sharply differing geological zones, species have often been trapped in situ, with nowhere to go despite the climatic changes. In such cases many (most?) of the species survive despite the physiological stress, and go on to adapt in-situ. This often leads to accelerated speciation. A good example is the south west of Western Australia where the underlying geology is very broken up and diverse. The region has been subjected to far more extreme changes in climate than south eastern Australia because of the sea current switching effect caused by temperature changes and yet, unlike the south east of Australia, the species have clung on in place. The fact they have nowhere to go because they cannot migrate out is not the critical issue. What is important is that many of the plants from outside the zone, that might otherwise have been better adapted and could therefore have displaced the original species, have not been able to invade because of the barrier created by the different soil types.

So it seems that it is not so much physiological stress, but competition that decides whether most species will persist in the face of climate change. The enormous adaptability of most plants and animals is demonstrated by agriculture, domestic gardens, botanic gardens and zoos where species from extraordinarily different original environments can often survive so long as competition is kept at bay.

These special cases suggest that maintaining the stability of the species composition, that is controlling inputs of weeds and pest animals, is the critical strategy. In fact now that human land use changes have changed most natural areas into ?islands? it seems appropriate to use the example of natural ?islands? to guide us in choosing a species survival strategy.

If we adopt the basic ?island? model, then we have to resolve a paradox about stability and change, especially in the case of small ?islands?. Small ?islands? risk the loss of species due to stochastic shocks - fires, droughts, disease, etc. It is important to have corridors or some other means of allowing species to re-colonise any ?de-stocked? habitat. This implies that species mobility is important. However small ?islands? are more prone to invasion by weeds and pests from the surrounding zone. So minimising species mobility is important. (It seems that the ideal solution would be to surround small native habitat ?islands? with a semi-permeable membrane! - to allow in the local natives but prevent the invasion of exotics.) Larger bush areas, being able to provide for their own restocking, do not raise this dilemma so severely.

So it seems as a universal principle we should not encourage the maximum movement of species in the face of the greenhouse effect. Instead, the conservation of native species is generally best served by maintaining as high a level of stability as the normal short run fluctuations of the environment will allow.

Britain`s changing flora & fauna

Species under efffect

European beaver

Last autumn's news, that beavers were being released into a pen at the Cotswold Water Park as a prelude to full-scale reintroduction, provoked the usual press hysteria about the damming of rivers and the destruction of trees. In fact the animals in question are European beavers, a much more environmentally-friendly animal than their Canadian cousin, and more likely to improve habitats rather than destroy them. Beavers were originally native here, but went extinct sometime during the 16th century, as a result of hunting for their fur. In mainland Europe, they fell to a low point of 1200 individuals during the 19th century, but have since made a strong recovery.

Wild boar

The conservation authorities were somewhat embarrassed when reports of "really wild" boars began to appear in the press - usually as a result of an unfortunate motorist literally bumping into one. As escapees from commercial farms, policy dictated that they should be recaptured or killed, to prevent them establishing a permanent presence. But the legislation ignored the fact that wild boars were originally native to Britain, dying out in the 17th century as a result of over-hunting. Once at large, they are also notoriously difficult to track down. So, despite its controversial status, the wild boar looks set to make a permanent return.

Early spider orchid

During the construction of the Channel Tunnel, almost five million cubic metres of chalk marl was extracted and used to construct a nature reserve, Samphire Hoe near Folkestone. Almost immediately rare orchids began to colonise, and the site is now home to thousands of early spider orchids, one of our rarest species. Common on the continent, this chalk grassland specialist is also found on Ministry of Defence sites and downland reserves in southern England and north Wales. As its name suggests, it usually flowers for a few weeks in late April and early May.

European swallowtail

Larger and paler than the British version, sightings of European swallowtails have increased in the past few years, and the species is now a regular visitor to southern England, where it has occasionally bred. Ironically, the distinctive British swallowtail, confined to a few sites in the Norfolk Broads, remains highly vulnerable, due to its dependence on a single food-plant - milk-parsley. Another migrant butterfly, the clouded yellow, has recently begun to overwinter in Britain, with successful breeding reported from, among other sites, the cliffs above the beach at Bournemouth!

Marsh frog

Introduced to Romney Marsh in Kent in the mid-1930s, this noisy and colourful amphibian is now a familiar sight - and sound - in waterways throughout south-east England. As soon as the sun comes out, the marsh frog - a voracious predator - makes its presence known by puffing out its cheeks and producing a loud croak. However, it is a shy creature, and will retreat into the water as soon as it realises it is being observed. This species is likely to benefit from climate change, which should allow it to extend its range northwards, wherever there is suitable wetland habitat.

Black kite

In the developing world, black kites have learned to hang around rubbish dumps, where they are adept at scavenging for anything even remotely edible. They also have an unappealing, though undoubtedly impressive, trick of snatching food from people's hands, demonstrating their acrobatic flying skills. Whether they can put such talents to the test here is open to question, though their adaptability was revealed last summer when a wandering black kite paired with one of the red kites released as part of the Scottish reintroduction programme. Looks likely to follow hard on the heels of the cattle egret as our next avian colonist.

Striped dolphin

Mainly found in tropical and sub-tropical seas, the striped dolphin is able to survive in British waters because of the warming influence of the North Atlantic Drift. Until recently sightings were confined to the English Channel, but in the past decade or so it has spread farther north, with records from the west coast of Scotland, the North Sea and even the Shetland Isles - just a few degrees south of the Arctic Circle. Most records are, unfortunately, of animals stranded on beaches. When seen at sea it can be distinguished from its commoner relatives by the distinctive pale stripe along its sides.

Humpback whale

Incredible though it may seem, the most acrobatic of all the world's whales is now a regular visitor to our coastal waters, where lucky observers may witness it leaping out of the sea in an action known as "breaching". The original European population of this great whale was wiped out more than 500 years ago, but by the 1980s, after it was granted protection under international law, the species began to appear again. The increase in sightings is likely to be partly a result of the rise in popularity of whale- watching trips, but may also be due to rising sea temperatures caused by global climate change.

Cattle egret

A contender for the title of the world's most successful bird, having managed to colonise Australasia and the Americas, and even reach Antarctica, from its original Old World home. It is now spreading north through Europe at a rapid rate, and looks likely to follow the example set by its close relative, the little egret, and become a permanent addition to our avifauna. As their name suggests, cattle egrets live in close association with livestock, feeding on invertebrates attracted by their dung. In the breeding season adults acquire elegant buffy-orange plumes, which they use in courtship display.

European bee-eater

The attempted breeding by a pair of these exotic and colourful birds in the Wye Valley last summer was, unfortunately, curtailed by a hungry fox. But bee-eaters did successfully nest in a County Durham quarry in 2002, raising two young under the admiring gaze of thousands of birders. Although often considered a Mediterranean species, the bee-eater has spread rapidly northwards during the latter half of the 20th century, and may well make a permanent leap across the Channel during the next few years. Birders would do well to listen for their distinctive bubbling call, given by migrating flocks flying high overhead.difficult to track down.


The departing

Snowy owl

In 1967, birders on the island of Fetlar in Shetland celebrated the unprecedented breeding of snowy owls, the very first time this arctic species had nested in Britain. They had extended their range southwards as the result of a brief period of climatic cooling in north-eastern Scotland and Scandinavia. Sadly for Harry Potter fans, as temperatures rose, conditions became unsuitable for this magnificent owl, and breeding last occurred in 1975. Today, snowy owls occasionally turn up as wandering visitors to Shetland and the Western Isles, but are unlikely to breed here again.

White-beaked dolphin

Despite a welcome increase in sightings of whales and dolphins in British and Irish waters, this species appears to be heading into a possibly terminal decline. Scientists monitoring sightings and beach strandings of white-beaked dolphins have found a dramatic drop in numbers. This is most likely a result of a rapid rise in sea temperatures, itself due to global climate change, which affects this cool-water species more than most. Unless the warming trend is reversed, the white-beaked dolphin is likely to disappear first from the shallow waters around our west coast, then from the cooler North Sea.

Greater horseshoe bat

The rarest of our 17 species of bat - and indeed one of our rarest mammals gets its name from the distinctive horseshoe-shaped flap of skin around its nose, which aids it in the process of echolocation. It is confined to south-west England and south Wales, probably because the mild climate of these areas enables it to feed during the winter. The relict Welsh population, in particular, suffers from low genetic diversity, and without conservation efforts may not survive much longer. This bat's rapid decline is due to changes in traditional farming practices and the consequent reduction in insect food.


Ptarmigan

One of a trio of montane specialists likely to suffer from the effects of global warming on their Scottish highland home, the others being snow bunting and dotterel. These all depend on the delicate arctic-alpine ecosystem of the high tops. Each year the decrease in snow cover on the Cairngorm plateau, and the resulting changes in vegetation and insect life, threaten these rare and fascinating birds with extinction. Ptarmigan are the only British birds to turn completely white in winter for camouflage - which may not seem quite such a good idea if the snow disappears.

Wood white

This delicate butterfly thrives on "edge" habitats, such as open rides through woodland. It enjoyed a brief population boom in the 60s and 70s, thanks partly to the legacy of Dr Beeching: the wholesale closure of rural railway lines created a temporary glut of new habitat. Since then, like so many of our woodland butterflies, it has declined in numbers. It did appear to be thriving in Ireland, until observant scientists discovered that most Irish "wood whites" in fact belonged to a different species - the two only being told apart by examining their genitalia under the microscope.

Wild cat

This legendary and almost impossibly elusive predator faces rapid extinction. This is not, as with so many other creatures, because of climate change or modern farming practices, but simply because interbreeding with feral and domestic moggies has so diluted the gene pool, that there may now only be a few hundred truly wild cats in existence. Most of those that do remain are in the remotest parts of the Grampian Mountains and the Scottish Highlands. Not always easy to tell apart from hybrids, pure-bred cats show distinctive vertical black stripes on their coat and black rings around their tails.

European tree frog

A small, usually bright green amphibian, which is, however, able to change colour at will, and may appear in various shades from lime green to greyish-brown. More often heard than seen, its repetitive call has been compared to a barking dog or quacking duck. Once thought to be an alien species introduced here by humans, new evidence suggests that a long-established colony in the New Forest did, in fact, comprise native animals. Unfortunately this was discovered too late to protect the tree frog, which now appears to be extinct in Britain.

Wart-biter bush cricket

The wart-biter bush-cricket is just managing to cling on in five widely separated populations on ancient chalk grassland and heathland in southern Britain, from the South Downs to Wiltshire. It is one of our largest and most impressive insects: almost four centimetres long, bright green, and with fearsome jaws that make short work of its smaller relatives. Despite its common name, this species has probably always been rare and localised in Britain - the English name is a translation of the Latin "verrucivorus" - pertaining to warts.

Stinking hawk's beard

Despite its off-putting name, this little plant is attractive in a modest way, with golden-yellow flowers appearing from June to August. When crushed, the leaves give out the characteristic "bitter almond" scent of cyanide. Unfortunately this member of the dandelion family does not seem to have inherited its commoner cousin's survival skills: the last native specimen was observed by a bungalow at Dungeness, Kent, in 1980. Soon afterwards it was reintroduced there, under the protective eye of, among others, the late film director Derek Jarman. Sadly most of his specimens were eaten by rabbits, the stinking hawk's beard's most frequent nemesis.

Red-backed shrike

During the mid-1990s, following a rapid decline, this diminutive predator became the latest species to go extinct as a British breeding bird. The last pair hung on in the East Anglian brecks, where warm summers provided just enough large insects to feed their young. This decline in insect life, due mainly to the overuse of agricultural pesticides, is undoubtedly the main cause of the red-backed shrike's disappearance. However, there is a possibility that climate change could benefit the species, with warmer, drier summers and a more continental-type climate recreating the right conditions for it to return.

Flora and fauna at risk on shrinking meadows

Flora and fauna at risk on shrinking meadows

In damp fields at various sites around the country, scientists are hard at work counting plants, as part of a major new project to save Britain's last few remaining floodplain meadows.

Once common across the floodplains of England and Wales, these flower-strewn meadows declined dramatically due to urbanisation and changes in farming practice. Since the 1950s, 98 per cent of species- rich meadows have been lost, leaving less than 1,000 hectares scattered around the country.

The remaining fragments, though protected by national and European law, are at risk from a range of factors including climate change and inappropriate management. By carrying out detailed surveys during the next 10 years, scientists hope to find out what is happening to them and how we can protect them.

Floodplain meadows evolved over hundreds of years and were highly prized for their natural fertility, maintained through regular winter flooding. Every year they yielded a valuable hay crop, and then provided grazing for animals. Today, they help alleviate flooding through winter storage of floodwaters and provide a habitat for an enormous range of plants and animals, including butterflies, birds such as curlews and snipe, and flowers such as the rare snake's head fritillary.

"Due to their position on floodplains, these meadows are particularly sensitive to changes in rainfall pattern," explains David Gowing, professor of botany at The Open University, which is hosting the project. "And being species-rich, they are sensitive to the increasing burden of nutrients and pollution from the wider river catchment and the atmosphere."

But understanding what affects floodplain meadows and how, is no easy task. Emma Rothero is the project's outreach co-ordinator, also based at The Open University. She explains: "In the past, changes in farming practice were responsible for the meadows' disappearance but now they are threatened by things like gravel extraction and development, which can reduce the amount of water reaching the meadows, and by flood defences.

"Too much water can be as damaging as too little, as the plants do not tolerate being flooded into the growing season. Other factors which cause changes in nutrient levels, such as sewage treatment works and increases in fertiliser application in the catchment, can also be a problem."

By monitoring the floodplains over a long period of time the scientists hope to amass a large database of information. But the work involved is painstaking. "These are botanically rich environments with up to 40 species per square metre," says Rothero.

"At the moment we are staking out a number of sites around the country with one-metre by one-metre quadrats. A quadrat is basically a square on the ground. On one site you might have 200 quadrats. You record all the plants within each quadrat. On some sites we are taking samples of soil and hay and looking at the nutrient levels, and on some we are recording water levels using electronic data loggers. If you collect this data over a long period of time, you can see how the plant species change in response to water and nutrient levels.

"The aim is to get good scientific information to people like landowners, conservation officers, site managers and policy-makers, so they can make decisions about site and catchment management. We plan to run workshops and courses, and to make the scientists accessible to those with questions and issues on wildflower floodplain meadows."

The Floodplain Meadows Project is hosted by The Open University in partnership with the Environment Agency, Natural England, The Grasslands Trust, the Field Studies Council, The Wildlife Trusts and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. It has been set up with funding from the Esmee Fairburn Foundation and the Garfield Weston Foundation, but the team needs to raise more funds to support the project in the long term, says Rothero. "If anyone wants to support us, we'd be interested in hearing from them."

Polar flora and fauna under global warming impact

In agreement with the different climate models developed by researchers and confirmed by the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the poles are the regions of the world where climate change is and will be the most rapid. This development is not without impact on the organisms living in those regions, some of which are the subject of increasing concern amongst biologists.

It's getting warm at the poles!

The trend towards Arctic warming is generalised, and in some regions the temperature has risen by more than 3°C over the past 50 years. This is more than ten times faster than the rest of the planet, where the average increase was only 0.6°C over the past century.

At the other end of the world, and although warming at present only affects the Antarctic peninsula, the phenomenon, although it has recently slowing, is just as marked: 4-5°C in the past 50 years…

Early trends in the south…
Because of the effect of temperature on the distribution of living organisms in these extreme environments, such changes are not without consequences.
"On the Antarctic peninsula, only two flowering plants were seen on exceptional occasions in the past," points out Pete Convey, from the BAS (British Antarctic Survey). "But over the past thirty years, antarctic grass and pearlwort have been developing in the south, as are several species of moss. All are benefiting from a lengthening in the periods of thaw."

Other effects are seen in the marine environment, following a regional trend towards a halt to the spread of pack ice. This ice is necessary to ensure the winter development of juvenile krill (a small crustacean which looks like a shrimp and upon which an impressive range of predators are dependent) and there has been a reduction in the frequency of successful breeding years. Their predators are also suffering: Wayne Trivelpiece from the NOAA (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has thus seen the disappearance of the chinstrap penguin from the multi-species colony he has been studying for nearly 30 years near to the Polish Arctowski research station: "It is probably the reduction in krill fecundity which is the reason for the decline of Adélie and chinstrap penguins on the Antarctic peninsula." The same effects have been seen in South Georgia, where Keith Reid & John Croxall from the BAS have shown that the growing competition for krill between sea lions and Macaroni penguins has led to a marked decline in the latter.

… and much disquiet in the north

As made clear a few months ago by the ACIA (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment) report in Reykjavik, the effects of global warming on fauna and flora are even more pronounced in the Arctic. Terry Callaghan, from the Abisko Scientific Research Centre in Sweden, explains: "On land, amongst other phenomena, warming has caused a gradual melting of the permafrost (permanently frozen ground), with the disappearance of hundreds of pools and lakes (because they have drained into the thawed soil) and the flora and fauna which inhabit them. We have also seen a gradual spread of forest coverage to the north, to the detriment of the tundra, where millions of migrating birds have their breeding grounds."

"Because the forests are darker, the albedo (percentage of reflected solar radiation) of these areas has fallen and thus created a positive retroaction which enhances warming," adds Glenn Patrick Juday, from the University of Alaska. "At the same time, we are seeing an increase in the number of fires and massive swarms of insect pests in several regions around the Arctic landmass."

The situation is no better in the Arctic Ocean: the average surface area of pack ice (measured at the end of each summer) has shrunk in 30 years by practically a million square kilometres (around 15 to 20%). This gradual shrinkage is causing increasing problems for the species associated with sea ice, whether these are single-cell algae, the copepod crustaceans which graze on them, the fish which hide in them and so on, up the chain to that most emblematic animal of the North Pole, the polar bear.

Polar bears facing major problems
According to Andrew Derocher from the University of Alberta in Canada, and his colleagues, shrinkage of the pack ice has caused a reduction in the numbers of ringed seals as well as in their accessibility for polar bears, for whom they are the principal prey. This is of crucial importance for the female bears when it comes to building up fat reserves before fasting for several months in winter and giving birth to their young. Indeed, researchers have shown that in Hudson Bay, each week the spring thaw advances represents a 10 kg loss of weight for female bears by the time they enter the snow den where their young will be born. In addition, warming also increases the frequency of winter rains and the collapse of these dens.

Sadly, there are few prospects for an improvement in the Arctic pack ice, because climate models agree on a continuous rise in the average temperature over the 100 years to come: up to 7°C for the ocean and up to 10°C in winter. The ACIA report even suggests the possible disappearance of summer pack ice between now and 2100…

Dying of heat in the Antarctic
On the other hand, at the other end of the globe, the formidable mass of the Antarctic ice sheet may protect the Antarctic Ocean from global warming. But at a local level, and once again in the context of rising temperatures in the peninsula, a series of joint studies, headed in particular by Lloyd Peck from the BAS and Hans-Otto Pörtner from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, recently put forward new reasons for concern. Their research on several marine invertebrate species has shown that the oxygen supply necessary for several vital functions, such as reproduction, is easily disturbed by a rise in water temperature. In fact, a 4°C rise would be sufficient to condemn several populations, or even some species with a limited distribution, to extinction.

Trees of Andalucia on threat of global warming

Spanish Fir
Pinsapo
Abies Pinsapo

In 1837, during one of his exploratory visits to the south of the Iberian Peninsula, the Swiss Botanist Edmond Boisser discovered a new species of tree: Abies Pinsapo, popularly known as the pinsapo pine or Spanish fir.

The tree can grow up to 30m tall and live as long as 200 years. It has tiny needle-like leaves, which are extremely sharp and cylindrical in shape, and although this foliage appears lightweight, it throws out a very dense shade on the ground.

Found only in the southern mountains of Andalucia and in the north of Morocco, botanists discovered that the pinsapo had been around since the Tertiary geological time period - before the Ice Age! How could it have survived?

What probably happened is that the climatic changes occurring during the Pleistocene period were not as intense in Andalucia as might be assumed. In that case, the glaciers of the Ice Age that reached down from the North may have stopped short of these mountains, thus saving the species from extinction.

What the elements couldn't destroy man almost did. At the beginning of the last century, due to extensive cultivation, pinsapo numbers were dwindling. In 1964 there were just 700 hectares of pinsapo forests remaining. Now, thanks to careful forestry management, there are 5000 hectares.

However, just as this distinctive tree looked set to last until the next Ice Age, a new threat has appeared - the fungus 'heterobasidium annosum'. Invisible but deadly, the fungus attacks the roots, moves up the trunk and finally brings the tree down. Experts consider that changes in the climate (local effects of global warming) have weakened the species' resistance to this fungus, which in normal circumstances would not pose a threat.

So far, the response of the regional government has been to burn infected specimens to prevent the spread of the disease. Ecologists are calling for a seed bank to ensure the survival of the species. In the future pinsapos could then be planted in areas where the effects of global warming have been less noticeable, such as Sierra Nevada and Cazorla.

Valuable SeaGrass faces globalwarming threat

Valuable seagrass faces global warming threat

GENEVA: Seagrass meadows, which are vital for the survival of much marine life and a source of household materials in Europe and Africa, face a mounting threat from global warming, a report said on Friday.

The report, from the Swiss-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said the submerged meadows -- many around the Mediterranean -- could be saved through concerted action by governments and scientists.

"Seagrass habitats are already declining due to increasing water temperatures, algae (seaweed) growth and light reduction, which are all effects of global change," said IUCN specialist Mats Bjork, one of the authors of the report.

The report said the grass -- flowering plants found in shallow waters around the globe -- provides food and shelter for prawn and fish populations and is used traditionally as mattress filling, roof covering and for medicines.

If much of it were to disappear, a wide range of species -- including dugongs, sea turtles, sea urchins and seabirds who feed on it -- would also come under increased threat, according to the report.

The report said some of the healthiest seagrass areas known to exist today were off the North African coast of Libya and Tunisia in areas where there had been little industrial or tourism development.

Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of IUCN's Global Marine Program, said the meadows could be saved by making seagrass more resilient to climbing temperatures through mixing genetically more diverse populations.

The report, issued at a conference in Barcelona, said the introduction of protected areas and linking the underwater meadows to nearby mangrove plantations or coral reefs would also give a huge boost to their chances of survival.

Lundin said it was also vital to extend research into how seagrass can be protected -- an effort already promoted by IUCN that would require governments and scientific institutions to devote resources and time.

How global warming is changing Animal kingdom

Scientists take note of shifts in animal behavior

The planet is warming, humans are mostly to blame and plants and animals are going to dramatic lengths to cope. That's the consensus of a number of recent studies that used wildlife to gauge the extent of global warming and its effects.

While the topic of climate change is contentious - including whether the planet is actually heating up - a growing number of documented shifts in traits and behaviors in the wild kingdom is leading many scientists to conclude the world is changing in unnatural ways.

Marmots end their hibernations about three weeks earlier now compared to 30 years ago. Polar bears today are thinner and less healthy than those of 20 years ago. Many fish species are moving northward in search of cooler waters. A fruitfly gene normally associated with hot, dry conditions has spread to populations living in traditionally cooler southern regions.

While We Argue...

Over the past century, Earth's average temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit and many scientists believe greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are to blame. Left unattended, they warn, temperatures may rise by an additional 2-10 degrees by the end of the century. In the leading computer models, it follows that polar ice will melt and seas would rise drastically, threatening coastal communities around the globe.

A handful of scientists dispute the data. Others say humans aren't to blame.

Terry Root, an environmental science and policy professor at Stanford University, says that as humans argue about thermometer readings, animals are providing evidence that should be figured in to scientific and political decisions.

Animals are "just reacting to what's going on out there," Root says. "And if their behavior is very similar to what we expect with what's going on with global warming - if they're shifting and they're moving, if they're changing their breeding time by 5 days in 10 years - we can use that information to support what the thermometers are also showing."

Climate change can occur naturally, but what worries many scientists the most - and the reason why they don't think this is part of a natural cycle - is the rapid rate at which the current changes are happening - changes that are being reflected in the responses of wildlife.

In a 2003 study published in the journal Nature, Root and her colleagues analyzed numerous studies involving wild plant and animals for changes due to global warming. Out of the nearly 1,500 species examined, the researchers found that about 1,200 exhibited temperature-related changes consistent with what scientists would expect if they were being affected by global warming.

The authors highlighted four possible ways that species might respond to rising temperatures, all of which have been documented by other studies and researchers.

Divide and Destroy

The first is for species to migrate northward or move to higher elevations. The ubiquitous presence of humans, however, is making this option difficult for some species.

"The thing that is very, very different from prehistoric times is that there are now K-Mart parking lots these species have to cross as they try to move north to get away from the heat down south," Root told LiveScience.

As a result, species that can't adapt to urban or agricultural environments become isolated, their lines of retreat cut off.

In a study published last year in the journal PLoS Biology, Elizabeth Hadly, a biologist at Stanford University, examined fossil records from past warming periods and concluded that global warming can reduce genetic diversity by affecting the connections between species populations.

The best way to ensure species survival is to have large, interconnected populations that are genetically diverse, Hadly explained in an email interview.

This means that even if the genetic diversity of a species as a whole is high, if the individuals are scattered and prevented from interbreeding, they can become just as vulnerable to disease and external threats as a species with a small population and low genetic diversity. Like the military strategy of divide-and-conquer, a group that together might have had the resources to withstand an assault can be picked off one by one if split up.

Connections among individuals within a species aren't the only things that can be disrupted: global warming can also threaten the ties that bind members of different species to one another.

Many biologists, including Darwin, once believed that species responded to temperature changes as a group, thus preserving their relationships to one another. But scientists are finding that this is often not the case.

Instead, different species respond to environmental stressors in different ways, and this can lead to what Root calls the "tearing apart of communities."

Intricate Connections

The second prediction was that the timing of natural events like flowering, migration, and egg-laying could shift. Ecosystems are intricately connected webs, and even if a species doesn't rely on temperature and daylight cues to trigger certain behaviors, it may interact with other species that do.

"Thousands of years of co-evolution could easily be disrupted," Root says.

Third, the body size and behaviors of species may change in response to rising temperatures. For example, scientists believe that as a general rule, bodies become smaller in response to general warming and larger with cooling.

A 2003 study led by Philip Gingerich, a geological sciences professor at the University of Michigan, looked at horse fossils from a warming period that occurred 55 million years ago. They found that as temperatures rose, the fossils shrank, from the size a small dog to a house cat. The researchers believed the dwarfing might have resulted from the horses eating plants whose tissues were low in protein but high in toxic compounds - plants that flourished in the carbon dioxide-rich environment of the time.

Finally, species can undergo genetic changes. This last prediction has been documented in at least two species, the red squirrel and the fruitfly Drosophila.

Business as Usual?

Not all scientists are convinced humans have anything to do with climate change or the shifts seen in the animal world.

Michael Patrick, an environmental science professor at the University of Virginia, believes the current warming is part of a natural cycle.

"It's what you'd expect," Patrick told LiveScience. "It's not all a result of human induced climate change. Half of it is at best, probably less than half."

Even if humans are causing global warming, Patrick said, there is little we can do to change it. "If it is an issue, it is one that we will have to adapt to."

Patrick believes the wildlife changes are likewise natural.

"With all due respect, you would expect to see some slight changes in the distribution of plants and animals as the planet warms - or as the planet cools for that matter," Patrick said. "It's hardly newsworthy."

If anything, most species would benefit from an earlier spring, and focusing on global warming is a harmful distraction from more serious problems afflicting wildlife, Patrick says. "If you asked me which one we should worry about more - changes in climate or human-caused changes in habitat - I would say that the latter is much more important."

"Overall climate will change quite a bit," Patrick said. "However, if you change characteristics of the surface - if you turn forest into farmland - that will have more severe effects on wildlife than merely changing the temperature a degree or two."

Stressful Future

Ecosystems and wildlife aren't the only things that increasing temperatures will affect.

"Global warming is going to be a big stress to all animals, including Homo sapiens," said Root.

A recent report issued by the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization, warned that rising temperatures could exacerbate health risks such as asthma for the elderly, the infirm and the poor, and especially for those in poor countries.

Even if all pollution were stopped today, the climate will warm at least another degree by the year 2100 and seas will rise 4 inches (11 centimeters), according to one recent study. Another report says warming is unstoppable through the year 2400. Despite the dire warnings, many scientists believe it may not be too late to reverse the trend.

The Pew report suggests creating transitional habitats that link natural areas as a way to help migrating species. Also, alleviating other environmental stressors like habitat destruction could help reduce their combined effects with global warming.

Root is encouraged by the fact that many cities are following higher environmental standards, even if state and national governments are dragging their feet.

In the end, she believes, it will be the relatively small things that people do that will have the biggest impact: "Hummer sales, thank heaven, are dropping since gas prices have gone up, and hybrid [car] sales have gone up. It's that type of stuff."

Extinction

Polar bear 'extinct within 100 years'

The polar bear could be driven to extinction by global warming within 100 years, warns an ecology expert.

The animal, which relies on sea ice to catch seals, is already starting to suffer the effects of climate changes in areas such as Hudson Bay in Canada.

Scientists say Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate of up to 9% per decade. Arctic summers could be ice-free by mid-century. Dr Andrew Derocher, of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, has used the data to assess the impact on the Arctic's top predator.

Top carnivore

He believes the polar bear could disappear in the wild by the end of the century unless the pace of global warming slows.

He told "Polar bears are a species whose whole life history is dependent on having sea ice.

"As the sea ice changes in distribution and pattern we can expect this to have fundamental changes on the ecology of polar bears.

"As the sea ice disappears, so will the polar bears."

Polar bears are uniquely adapted to survival in the Arctic. They are the world's largest land predator, feeding mainly on seals.

They use the sea ice as a floating platform to catch prey and they travel across it on their way to their dens.

British polar expert Dr Peter Wadhams of the University of Cambridge says the bear faces a gloomy future unless it is able to change its habits.

"It could be that a polar bear could adapt to a new habitat and adopt habits like the brown bear in Alaska which hunts salmon in streams and other small animals on land," he said.

Fragile ecology

Scientists believe that Ursus maritimus, the "sea bear", evolved about 200,000 years ago from brown bear ancestors.

Whether it can "change its spots" and behave more like a brown bear is another matter.

Lynn Rosentrater, climate scientist in the WWF International Arctic Programme, thinks it unlikely.

There have been cases of polar bears scavenging in bins for food in summer, she said, but the animals need seal fat to get through the winter.

"In the absence of sea ice the whole basis of polar bear ecology ceases to exist," she explained. Polar bears are currently found in Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway.

Populations in southern limits such as Hudson Bay are at most risk of dying out.

Bears stand most chance of surviving, in isolated groups, in the western Arctic or the Canadian archipelago.

Polar Bears in recent decades

What has been happening to polar bears in recent decades?

Scott L. Schliebe
Polar Bear Project Leader
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/MMM
Anchorage, AK

Polar bears have long captured the attention of the general public but probably at no time in the past have they been more in the forefront of the public's imagination than today. Today's heightened interest in polar bears may be due in part to an enhanced understanding of the ecology of polar bears, their environment, and an increased interest in Arctic issues brought on by concerns for climate change. Results of years of research and studies are now available to an interested public, and efforts to communicate this information to the public has been more effective in recent years than in the past. As a result the current public is generally well-informed and educated regarding the ecology of polar bears. This public, unlike previous publics, has a variety of communication tools that enable it to interact and communicate more effectively with researchers and managers.

What have we learned? We now know that polar bears are not a single large homogeneous population that roams throughout the Arctic. Instead groups of polar bears referred to as stocks or populations, are distributed throughout the Arctic. Research begun in the late 1960s and continuing today also provides a thorough backdrop of information on population demographics, systematically analyzed data on population boundaries, population movements, population size, reproductive and survival parameters, and other useful information about biological, physiological, and ecological aspects of polar bears.

We also realize that polar bears do not occur in large numbers; their ability to replace individuals in the population is very limited and population growth is extremely slow; they are long-lived creatures, which helps to offset the low reproductive potential; their populations fluctuate in response to natural factors such as climate and prey availability; and, populations can also be impacted by humans through factors such as hunting, oil spills, shipping, and other activities. We also realize that the level of human presence and activity in the Arctic continues to build. As a result the potential for humans to impact polar bears has never been greater than today.

Technologically, researchers have been blessed in the last 30 years. Advances in satellite telemetry allowed researchers to follow individual bears over time and greatly enhanced our knowledge of movements and population bounds. Infrared thermal sensory equipment is providing promise in detecting polar bear dens beneath the snow. Extended time-series of data now available for some populations documents trends that were previously not apparent. Improvements in aircraft and vessel transportation have provided access to a larger portion of the range of polar bears than was previously accessible. Finally, technologic advances have allowed for multi-disciplinary Arctic research, which is in many cases supported by polar-class icebreakers. All of these advances plus greater understanding of population dynamics and population modeling now allow for greater precision in making management decisions and a better understanding of risks and consequences of management actions.

In the past, one of the greatest saving graces for polar bear populations was the fact that their habitat was relatively pristine and secure from alteration. In fact a very large portion of the high arctic was void of any human presence. Hence at that time the greatest concern for polar bear populations were over harvest and human development that was occurring at the fringes of the range of polar bears.

Polar bears and their prey have evolved to living in the extreme conditions of the Arctic. Polar bears and seals are dependent on sea-ice for foraging, resting, and reproduction. The Arctic ecosystem was shaped by climate and continues to be driven today by climate. Polar bears and ice seals, primarily ringed seals, serve as key indicators of the effects of climate change on the Arctic environment. Today, polar bear populations are facing threats previously unprecedented during recorded history in the Arctic. Recent climate change scenarios based upon modeling of climate trend data predict that the Arctic region will experience major changes in the upcoming decades. On the most drastic end of the spectrum one model predicts that the Arctic basin may be void of ice within 50 years. Other models have shown that ice thickness has decreased by 40% during the past 30 years and the average annual extent of ice coverage in the polar region has diminished substantially, with an average annual reduction of over 1 million square kilometers.

While the ultimate or progressively evolving effects of climatic change on polar bear populations is not certain, we do recognize that even minor climate changes could likely have a profound effect on polar bears. The following is from the IUCN/Species Survival Commission, Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) web site and in summary indicates the following:

Climate changes on prey species will have a negative effect on polar bears

• increased snow can result in reduced success in successfully entering seal birth lairs



• decreased snow or increased seasonal rain patterns could effect seal pupping by not providing adequate snow for construction of birth lairs or if rain fall by collapsing birth lairs thus reducing seal productivity



• prey reductions could effect polar bear condition and ultimately cub production and survival

Changes that alter the period of ice coverage could affect distribution and impact polar bears

• bears may spend greater amounts of time on land


• extended use of terrestrial areas would ultimately effect physical condition of bears when forced to rely on fat stores


• decreased physical condition could effect production and survival


• bears using deteriorating pack ice may experience increased energetic costs associated with movements and swimming

Denning could be impacted by unusual warm spells

• access to high quality denning areas may be limited or restricted
  
• use of less desirable denning habitat could have impacts on reproduction and survival
  
• rain or warming could directly cause snow dens to collapse or be opened to ambient conditions


• loss of thermal insulative properties in opened dens could affect litter survival

As a case in point, in Western Hudson Bay researchers have collected demographic information on polar bears since 1981. Over this time frame and location the sea ice breakup has been occurring earlier. The earlier breakup has been related to the poorer condition of polar bears and there is a correlation between the earlier breakup and a decadal scale pattern of warming air temperatures during the spring between 1950 and 1990. It appears that earlier breakup caused by warmer temperatures has resulted in declines in physical and reproductive parameters of polar bears in this area. This is the only study to date to demonstrate the effects of changed environment resulting from climate changes, and a corresponding effect on polar bears. Climate change is not uniform in all areas of the Arctic, however. Since Hudson Bay is located at the southern most extent of the range of polar bears, findings here may be a forewarning of changes to come in future years for other areas of the Arctic. Clearly, climate change and its effect on sea ice and polar bears should be closely monitored in future years.

Environmental contaminants in the form of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) pose an additional area of increased concern for polar bears. Recent documentation of baseline contaminant levels in the circumpolar environment and in key species has dramatically expanded the knowledge of regional presence and levels of these pollutants over the past 10 years. Polar bears, as an apical predator that tends to amplify the accumulation organochlorines compounds, are a perfect candidate for studies in evaluating trends. We now know that polar bears inhabiting certain areas of the Arctic exhibit elevated levels of organochlorines, particularly PCB's (poly chlorinated biphenyls) while populations inhabiting other areas have lower levels. Laboratory experiments involving elevated levels of organochlorines have been associated with a range of effects including neurological, reproductive, and immunological changes. Studies are continuing to evaluate the effect of persistent organic pollutants on essential life functions of polar bears and other marine animals with an emphasis on evaluating immune and hormonal systems.

International involvement in polar bear conservation dates back to 1965 when scientists from Canada, Norway, Denmark, USSR, and the United States met in Fairbanks to discuss polar bear conservation due to widespread concern that populations were being over harvested. Until this time there had been very little management of polar bears in the Arctic and no coordinated effort among arctic countries. Harvest rates were rising rapidly in most areas except Russia which had enacted a ban on hunting in 1956. The Fairbanks meeting resulted in the formation of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) whose mission was to coordinate polar bear research and management programs on an international basis and to exchange information on each country's programs.

Members of the PBSG and the countries they represent developed and negotiated the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears (Agreement), which was signed in Oslo, Norway in May, 1973. Among other conditions the Parties agreed through Article VII to "conduct national research programs on polar bears, particularly research relating to the conservation and management of the species. They shall, as appropriate, coordinate such research with the research carried out by other Parties, consult with other Parties on management of migrating polar bear populations, and exchange information on research and management programs, research results, and data on bears taken." The PBSG meets every three to five years with a goal of advancing the principles of the Agreement. The most recent meeting was held June 2001 in Nuuk, Greenland. The proceedings of the working group meetings are published in the IUCN series.

Highlights of recent activities include: conducting ecotoxological studies to evaluate potential effects on polar bear immune and hormone systems in the Svalsbard Island complex; continuing efforts to refine population boundaries and better understand sustainable harvest levels or the effects of harvests on populations; evaluating new techniques to conduct aerial population surveys; evaluating the relationship between bears, seals, and sea ice conditions; population genetics studies; and research to evaluate the effectiveness of thermal sensory technology to detect polar bear dens beneath snow.

Gore Shares Peace Prize for Climate Change Work

By WALTER GIBBS and SARAH LYALL

Published: October 13, 2007

OSLO, Oct. 12 — Former Vice President Al Gore, who emerged from his loss in the muddled 2000 presidential election to devote himself to his passion as an environmental crusader, was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nation network of scientists.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised both "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change."

The prize is a vindication for Mr. Gore, whose cautionary film about the consequences of climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth," won the 2007 Academy Award for best documentary, even as conservatives in the United States denounced it as alarmist and exaggerated.

"I will accept this award on behalf of all the people that have been working so long and so hard to try to get the message out about this planetary emergency," Mr. Gore said Friday in Palo Alto, Calif., standing with his wife, Tipper, and four members of the United Nations climate panel. "I’m going back to work right now," he said.

The award was also a validation for the United Nations panel, which in its early days was vilified by those who disputed the scientific case for a human role in climate change. In New Delhi, the Indian climatologist who heads the panel, Rajendra K. Pachauri, said that science had won out over skepticism.

Mr. Gore, a vociferous opponent of the Bush administration on a range of issues, including the Iraq war, is the second Democratic politician to win the peace prize this decade. Former President Jimmy Carter won in 2002.

Mr. Carter, himself a critic of Mr. Bush, was 78 when he won the prize. But Mr. Gore is just 59 and an active presence in American politics, if only as a large thorn in Mr. Bush’s side — and in the side of Democrats worried that he might challenge them for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Gore, who lost the 2000 election to Mr. Bush, has regularly said that he will not run for president again. But Friday’s announcement touched off renewed interest in his plans.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, did not go overboard in his praise. "Of course we’re happy for Vice President Gore and the I.P.C.C. for receiving this recognition," he said.

In Oslo, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the peace committee, was asked whether the award could be seen as criticism of the Bush administration, which did not subscribe to the Kyoto treaty to cap greenhouse gases. He replied that the Nobel was not meant to be a "kick in the leg to anyone" — the Norwegian expression for "kick in the teeth."

"We would encourage all countries, including the big countries, and challenge them to think again and to say what they can do to conquer global warming," Dr. Mjoes said in Oslo.

The four other members of the peace committee generally refuse to comment on the thinking behind the award, which in recent years has moved toward issues at a degree of remove from armed conflict, like social justice, poverty remediation and environmentalism. But in a telephone interview, Berge Furre, one of the four, said, "I hope this will have an effect on the attitudes of Americans as well as people in other countries."

In its formal citation, the Nobel committee called Mr. Gore "probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted." It praised the United Nations panel, which is made up of 2,000 scientists and is considered the world’s leading authority on climate change, for creating "an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming."

While the world’s major environmental groups all praised Mr. Gore for his role in raising public awareness, they praised the panel for, in the words of Greenpeace International, "meticulous scientific work."

The two approaches both play a part, scientists said Friday. "The noble prize is honoring the science and the publicity, and they’re necessarily different," said Spencer R. Weart, a historian at the American Institute of Physics.

Mr. Gore, who announced he would give his portion of the $1.5 million prize money to the nonprofit organization he founded last year, the Alliance for Climate Protection, said he was honored to share the prize with the panel, calling it "the world’s pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis."

Mr. Pachauri said, "The message that it sends is that the Nobel Prize committee realized the value of knowledge in tackling the problem of climate change." He said the award was an acknowledgment of the panel’s "impartial and objective assessment of climate change."

The climate panel, established in 1988, has issued a series of increasingly grim reports in the last two decades assessing issues surrounding climate change. It is expected to issue another report in the next few months, before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Indonesia on Dec. 3. Some 180 countries are scheduled to begin negotiations there on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the climate adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and a leading contributor to the United Nations panel’s reports, said they were the result of "a painstaking process of self-interrogation."

The committee acts at "about the highest level of complexity you can manage in such a scientific assessment," Dr. Schellnhuber said in a telephone interview from Milan.

For a scientist, he said, taking part on the climate change panel entails considerable sacrifices. "It drives you absolutely crazy," Dr. Schellnhuber said. "You fly to distant places; you stay up all night negotiating; you listen to hundreds of sometimes silly interventions. You go through so many mundane things to produce the big picture."

The Nobel prizes are meant to be apolitical, and are awarded independently of one another. (The peace prize is awarded in Oslo, while the others are awarded by various academies in Sweden.) But a number of recent winners have expressed their opposition to Bush administration policies.

The 2005 literature winner, the British playwright Harold pinter, turned his Nobel address into a blistering indictment of American foreign policy since the Second World War. A co-winner of the peace prize that year, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made no secret of his opposition to the American invasion of Iraq and has angered the Bush administration by his measured methods for trying to rein in nuclear proliferation, particularly in Iran.

In its citation on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the United Nations panel and Mr. Gore had focused "on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world’s future climate, and thereby reduce the future threat to the security of mankind."

It concluded, "Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control."

Walter Gibbs reported from Oslo, and Sarah Lyall from London. Reporting was contributed by Jesse McKinley from Palo Alto, Calif., Somini Sengupta from New Delhi, Mark Landler from Frankfurt, David Rampe from Paris, and Andrew C. Revkin from New York.