The Ecological Importance of Winter in Temperate, Boreal, and Arctic Ecosystems in Times of Climate Change

2019 ◽  
pp. 377-399
Author(s):  
J. Kreyling
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Ecological Importance

scholarly journals Projections for Mexico’s Tropical Rainforests Considering Ecological Niche and Climate Change

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Antonio Fidel Santos-Hernández ◽  
Alejandro Ismael Monterroso-Rivas ◽  
Diódoro Granados-Sánchez ◽  
Antonio Villanueva-Morales ◽  
Malinali Santacruz-Carrillo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Potential Distribution ◽  
Tropical Rainforest ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Ecological Importance

The tropical rainforest is one of the lushest and most important plant communities in Mexico’s tropical regions, yet its potential distribution has not been studied in current and future climate conditions. The aim of this paper was to propose priority areas for conservation based on ecological niche and species distribution modeling of 22 species with the greatest ecological importance at the climax stage. Geographic records were correlated with bioclimatic temperature and precipitation variables using Maxent and Kuenm software for each species. The best Maxent models were chosen based on statistical significance, complexity and predictive power, and current potential distributions were obtained from these models. Future potential distributions were projected with two climate change scenarios: HADGEM2_ES and GFDL_CM3 models and RCP 8.5 W/m2 by 2075–2099. All potential distributions for each scenario were then assembled for further analysis. We found that 14 tropical rainforest species have the potential for distribution in 97.4% of the landscape currently occupied by climax vegetation (0.6% of the country). Both climate change scenarios showed a 3.5% reduction in their potential distribution and possible displacement to higher elevation regions. Areas are proposed for tropical rainforest conservation where suitable bioclimatic conditions are expected to prevail.

scholarly journals Vulnerability of the North Water ecosystem to climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Ribeiro ◽  
Audrey Limoges ◽  
Guillaume Massé ◽  
Kasper L. Johansen ◽  
William Colgan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Little Auk ◽  
The North ◽  
Water Ecosystem ◽  
North Water

AbstractHigh Arctic ecosystems and Indigenous livelihoods are tightly linked and exposed to climate change, yet assessing their sensitivity requires a long-term perspective. Here, we assess the vulnerability of the North Water polynya, a unique seaice ecosystem that sustains the world’s northernmost Inuit communities and several keystone Arctic species. We reconstruct mid-to-late Holocene changes in sea ice, marine primary production, and little auk colony dynamics through multi-proxy analysis of marine and lake sediment cores. Our results suggest a productive ecosystem by 4400–4200 cal yrs b2k coincident with the arrival of the first humans in Greenland. Climate forcing during the late Holocene, leading to periods of polynya instability and marine productivity decline, is strikingly coeval with the human abandonment of Greenland from c. 2200–1200 cal yrs b2k. Our long-term perspective highlights the future decline of the North Water ecosystem, due to climate warming and changing sea-ice conditions, as an important climate change risk.

Fungi and plant co-variation in Arctic Siberia inferred from sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding during the last 45.000 years

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara von Hippel ◽  
Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring ◽  
Luise Schulte ◽  
Peter Seeber ◽  
Laura S. Epp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Siberian Larch ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Arctic Siberia

<p>Climate change has a great impact on boreal ecosystems including Siberian larch forests. As a consequence of warming, larch grow is possible in areas where climate used to be too cold, leading to a shift of the tree line into more arctic regions. Most plants co-exist in symbiosis with heterotrophic organisms surrounding their root system. In arctic ecosystems, mycorrhizal fungi are a prerequisite for plant establishment and survival because they support nutrient uptake from nutrient-poor soils and maintain the water supply. Until now, however, knowledge about the co-variation of vegetation and fungi is poor. Certainly, the understanding of dynamic changes in biotic interactions is important to understand adaptation mechanisms of ecosystems to climate change.</p><p>We investigated sedimentary ancient DNA from Lake Levinson Lessing, Taymyr Peninsula (Arctic Siberia, tundra), Lake Lama, Lake Kyutyunda (both northern Siberia, tundra-taiga transition zone) and Lake Bolshoe Toko (southern Siberia, forest area) covering the last about 45.000 years using ITS primers for fungi along with the chloroplast P6 loop marker for vegetation metabarcoding. We found changes in the fungal communities that are in broad agreement with vegetation turnover. To our knowledge, this is the first broad ecological study on lake sediment cores to analyze fungal biodiversity in relation to vegetation change on millennial time scales.</p>

scholarly journals Observed and predicted effects of climate change on Arctic caribou and reindeer

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor D. Mallory ◽  
Mark S. Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
The Many ◽  
Rapid Environmental Change ◽  
Full Consideration ◽  
Strong Concern

The ability of many species to adapt to the shifting environmental conditions associated with climate change will be a key determinant of their persistence in the coming decades. This is a challenge already faced by species in the Arctic, where rapid environmental change is well underway. Caribou and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) play a key role in Arctic ecosystems and provide irreplaceable socioeconomic value to many northern peoples. Recent decades have seen declines in many Rangifer populations, and there is strong concern that climate change is threatening the viability of this iconic Arctic species. We examine the literature to provide a thorough and full consideration of the many environmental factors that limit caribou and reindeer populations, and how these might be affected by a warming climate. Our review suggests that the response of Rangifer populations to climate change is, and will continue to be, varied in large part to their broad circumpolar distribution. While caribou and reindeer could have some resilience to climate change, current global trends in abundance undermine all but the most precautionary outlooks. Ultimately, the conservation of Rangifer populations will require careful management that considers the local and regional manifestations of climate change.

scholarly journals Transcriptomic responses to environmental change in fishes: Insights from RNA sequencing

FACETS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 610-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah A. Oomen ◽  
Jeffrey A. Hutchings
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rna Sequencing ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Transcriptomic Responses ◽  
Ecological Importance

The need to better understand how plasticity and evolution affect organismal responses to environmental variability is paramount in the face of global climate change. The potential for using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to study complex responses by non-model organisms to the environment is evident in a rapidly growing body of literature. This is particularly true of fishes for which research has been motivated by their ecological importance, socioeconomic value, and increased use as model species for medical and genetic research. Here, we review studies that have used RNA-seq to study transcriptomic responses to continuous abiotic variables to which fishes have likely evolved a response and that are predicted to be affected by climate change (e.g., salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and pH). Field and laboratory experiments demonstrate the potential for individuals to respond plastically to short- and long-term environmental stress and reveal molecular mechanisms underlying developmental and transgenerational plasticity, as well as adaptation to different environmental regimes. We discuss experimental, analytical, and conceptual issues that have arisen from this work and suggest avenues for future study.

scholarly journals Nutritional input from dinoflagellate symbionts in reef-building corals is minimal during planula larval life stage

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. e1500681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Kopp ◽  
Isabelle Domart-Coulon ◽  
Dominique Barthelemy ◽  
Anders Meibom
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Metabolic Shift ◽  
Pocillopora Damicornis ◽  
Larval Life ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Metabolic Interaction ◽  
Ecological Importance ◽  
And Control ◽  
Planula Larvae

Dispersion of larval offspring is of fundamental ecological importance to sessile marine organisms. Photosymbiotic planulae emitted by many reef-forming corals may travel over large distances before settling to form a new colony. It is not clear whether the metabolic requirements of these planula larvae are met exclusively with lipid and protein reservoirs inherited from the mother colony or when metabolic inputs from their endosymbiotic dinoflagellates become important. Pulse-chase experiments using [13C]bicarbonate and [15N]nitrate, combined with subcellular structural and isotopic imaging of freshly emitted symbiotic larvae from the coralPocillopora damicornis, show that metabolic input from the dinoflagellates is minimal in the planulae compared with adult colonies. The larvae are essentially lecithotrophic upon emission, indicating that a marked shift in metabolic interaction between the symbiotic partners takes place later during ontogeny. Understanding the cellular processes that trigger and control this metabolic shift, and how climate change might influence it, is a key challenge in coral biology.

scholarly journals Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1779) ◽  
pp. 20133128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel A. Iverson ◽  
H. Grant Gilchrist ◽  
Paul A. Smith ◽  
Anthony J. Gaston ◽  
Mark R. Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Polar Bears ◽  
Somateria Mollissima ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Colonial Nesting ◽  
Ice Coverage

Northern polar regions have warmed more than other parts of the globe potentially amplifying the effects of climate change on biological communities. Ice-free seasons are becoming longer in many areas, which has reduced the time available to polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) to hunt for seals and hampered bears’ ability to meet their energetic demands. In this study, we examined polar bears’ use of an ancillary prey resource, eggs of colonial nesting birds, in relation to diminishing sea ice coverage in a low latitude region of the Canadian Arctic. Long-term monitoring reveals that bear incursions onto common eider ( Somateria mollissima ) and thick-billed murre ( Uria lomvia ) nesting colonies have increased greater than sevenfold since the 1980s and that there is an inverse correlation between ice season length and bear presence. In surveys encompassing more than 1000 km of coastline during years of record low ice coverage (2010–2012), we encountered bears or bear sign on 34% of eider colonies and estimated greater egg loss as a consequence of depredation by bears than by more customary nest predators, such as foxes and gulls. Our findings demonstrate how changes in abiotic conditions caused by climate change have altered predator–prey dynamics and are leading to cascading ecological impacts in Arctic ecosystems.

scholarly journals Arctic sea ice-free season projected to extend into fall

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Lebrun ◽  
Martin Vancoppenolle ◽  
Gurvan Madec ◽  
François Massonnet
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Simple Mechanism ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Sea Ice Reduction

Abstract. The recent Arctic sea-ice reduction is associated with an increase in the ice-free season duration, with comparable contributions of earlier retreat and later freeze-up. Here we show that within the next decades, the trends towards later freeze-up should progressively exceed and ultimately double the trend towards an earlier ice retreat date. This feature is robustly found in a hierarchy of climate models and is consistent with a simple mechanism: solar energy is absorbed more efficiently than it can be released in non-solar form until freeze-up. Based on climate change simulations, we envision an increase and a shift of the ice-free season towards fall, which will affect Arctic ecosystems and navigation.

scholarly journals What Does the Pacific Arctic's New Normal Mean for Marine Life?

Eos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Sheffield Guy ◽  
Sue Moore ◽  
Phyllis Stabeno
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
New Normal ◽  
Marine Life ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Normal Mean ◽  
Oceanographic Conditions

Climate change has reconfigured Arctic ecosystems. A 5-year project focuses on the relationships among oceanographic conditions and the animals and other life-forms in this region.

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