A study led by the University of Edinburgh together with the University of Columbia Britanic and 49 other institutions, including the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-CMCNB), evidence how climate change is transforming one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world, which is heating four times faster than the world average. The work, published in Naturehighlights the large increase in shrubs and grasses and the decrease in flowers with flowers, fighting to grow under the shadow of higher plants.
According to experts, these changes in vegetation are much larger transformations alert signs that could affect animals, human communities and even the global system that regulates the planet’s carbon.
The investigation, funded by the European Union and the Natural Environment Research Councilamong others, it has had a team of 54 researchers who have analyzed more than 42,000 field observations of 2,174 plots to create a database on the Diversity of Arctic Plantswhich will be essential to understand the future changes in the coldest areas of the planet.
The samples come from the Canadian Arctic and Svalbard tundra to zones of thickets above the tree limit of Alaska, Canada and Fennoscondia (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark).
‘Boreization’ of the Arctic
The study concludes that the main factors of these changes in biodiversity are the increase in temperatures and competition between plant species. In this sense, the CSIC researcher at the IBB, Pep Serra, emphasizes that this work “breaks with some simplified predictions of the effects of climate change on ecosystems.”
Serra explains that sometimes, “it is assumed that the increase in temperature simply displaces warmer ecosystems towards cold areas. However, in this case there was no boreization of the Arctic, but a reorganization of biodiversity from existing species in the region ».
In the words of Mariana García Criado, main author and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh: «when we think of the Arctic, we usually imagine a sterile moor, but the Arctic is surprisingly diverse. Tundra ecosystems can house dozens of plant species in a square meter ».
The researcher adds that «the warmer temperatures are bringing more species, but not everywhere. The bushes are remodeling the Arctic ecosystemssince they often cause a decrease in biodiversity, although not always. It was surprising to see how the composition of plant communities changed in many different ways.
In the words of Professor Isla Myers-Smith, from the universities of Edinburgh and British Columbia: “Often, when we think about the repercussions of climate change on the planet, we think of the loss of biodiversity, but in the tundra, where the temperature is a limiting factor, climate change has multiple facets.”
Myers-Smith points out that, «in some of the places in our study, biodiversity increased with heating. But where the bushes began to dominate, biodiversity decreased. Together, our study indicates that biodiversity can follow divergent trajectories in an Arctic that is quickly heated ».
Professor Emeritus Greg Henry, from the Department of Geography of the University of Columbia Britanic (Canada), concludes: «We need to investigate in the long term to understand the Arctic, since the change of ecosystems begins with plants. When they change, everything follows, including Arctic animals, local and indigenous communities and the global carbon cycle ».
This article was originally published in Sinc. Read the original in this link.
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