Changing environments Flashcards
What are the consequences of changing environments?
Physiological adaptations under past environments may not be beneficial under future climates and organisms may lack appropriate physiological adaptations for new environmental conditions
What percentage of birds are currently living above their optimum performance temperature?
15% above their ambient thermal tolerances, predicted to rise to 36% by 2080
What percentage of mammals are currently living above their optimum performance temperature?
16%, 47% by 2080
What happens if species aren’t able to respond to temperature changes adequately?
Population declines and extinction
What are the possible responses to change in temperature?
Change in space - move to areas with different climate
Temporal changes - change in time of breeding/migratory events etc
Phenotypic change
How does increasing temperature affect oxygen availability in the oceans?
decreasing oxygen levels with temp
How does increasing temperature in the oceans affect fish
Metabolic rate increases as temperature increase, which means a greater demand for oxygen, however increasing temp in the ocean means decreases in oxygen levels. This leads to an overall decrease if fish body size
What are the wider consequences smaller fish size?
May have an effect on other species that feed on them
Many fish species are economically important
Why is it important to predict how climate change will affect species?
For conservation and placement of protected areas
Economically important species need to be conserved
Birds in cages were kept at two temperature levels, what were the results if the experiment?
Showed no difference in response to different ambient temperature levels
What are the most important predictions that need to be made about the future?
How large will future emissions be?
Occurrence of extreme climatic events
How close a species is to its thermal tolerance limits
How species interactions will change
Which species are likely to be negatively effected by increasing temperatures?
Insects in the tropics
