OXFORD CLIMATE SOCIETY
  • About
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • Our History
    • Advisory Board
    • Our Sponsors
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Videos of Past Events
  • Education
    • The Oxford School of Climate Change
    • Capstone Projects
    • Climate Change and Policy Lecture series
    • COP information
    • Climate Library
  • Action
    • Sustainability Action Guide
    • Decarbonise Oxford
    • College Sustainability Workshops
    • Legacy Campaigns >
      • Sustainability in the Curriculum
      • Oxford Climate Action Plan
  • Media and Arts
    • RISE zine
    • Anthroposphere: The Oxford Climate Review
    • Interdiscplinary Fine Art
  • Blog
    • Articles >
      • International Climate Policy
      • Global Perspectives
      • What you need to know about...
      • Past Blogs
    • Event summaries
  • Get Involved
    • Join Our Teams
    • RISE Submissions
    • Subscribe to our Newsletter
  • Alumni Network
  • Contact
  • Donate

Past Blogs

A variety of blog posts

Retreating to higher ground

22/10/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Green ringtail possum

Author

Joe Douglas

As humans we are pretty good at living at a range of temperatures, adapting to life at most latitudes and able to find insulation and shelter or cool ourselves in the shade, as and when we get uncomfortable. Of course, the targeted maximum of a 2°C increase of global average temperature set down in the Paris Climate Agreement isn’t an attempt to limit the risk to the structural integrity of ice-creams on July afternoons. Preventing a global temperature increase of this kind is about avoiding human tragedies on a massive scale, from whole islands and cities being engulfed by rising seas, droughts that destroy vital crops year after year, and extreme weather events that flatten homes and lives. The 2°C mark, despite being an objective and quantifiable change, is therefore largely symbolic. Stepping away from global increase to a more local, less apocalyptic scale – in the city of Oxford for example – I imagine people would probably welcome such a modest increase in temperature when braving the wind and rain on their daily commutes.

Localised warming, however, even to the tune of just a few degrees, can be bad news for other less generalist species than humans. Although many species are capable of adapting their behaviour and physiology to new temperature ranges, many more require very specific conditions to survive. Such species typically live in high biodiversity areas, like rainforests, where each species fulfils a very particular ecological niche – eating specific species, foraging or hunting using a very specific method, living in specific places, and so on. This means that small changes, if they occur too quickly for a population to adapt, can have profound consequences.

In Queensland, Australia, for example, the rainforests are home to a great diversity of possum species. One of these species, the green ringtail possum, P. archeri, (pictured) is found only at elevations above 300m limited by its inability to successfully regulate its body temperature at warmer lower altitudes. This is because it has ‘adaptive heterothermy’, meaning that as temperatures rise above and beyond 30°C it ceases to increase its rate of perspiration, in an attempt to avoid severe dehydration. The narrow ecological niche of the green ringtail possum restricts it to the forest canopy, where it obtains most of its fluid from eating foliage. Poisonous compounds in the leaves it eats – a defence against overgrazing – stop the possum from quickly rehydrating itself, eating less often so it has time to break down the harmful compounds it ingests. These possums evolved over many millennia to take advantage of a highly stable ecosystem and climate, which favoured adaptive heterothermy. But with localised warming in the Queensland region, this fine balance is being disturbed, and the green ringtail possum and other species are being constrained to smaller and smaller territories at higher altitudes, which can’t support the same number of possums.
Picture
Hawaii creeper
Proving the influence of climate change on ecosystems is a relentlessly difficult task, especially when there are other major forms of human disturbance at work. The complex web of interactions between living and non-living factors in an area often produces chains of effect that can magnify the effect of localised warming. In Hawaii, the destruction of lowland habitats to make way for agriculture has forced most native bird species uphill to habitats on the mountain slopes. However, the current threat to the birds is no longer agriculture, but avian malaria carried by an introduced species of mosquito, C. quinquefasciatus. As the malarial parasite can only successfully infect new hosts at temperatures above 13°C, the native birds are only contracting malaria at middle elevations, preserving refuges in the highest areas. Incremental localised warming, however, is already robbing them of this sanctuary, and famous birds such as the Hawaii creeper (pictured) are becoming endangered. The retreat of specialist species uphill to cope with rising temperatures is doomed to be a losing game. Although for some of them are still able to expand upwards, at some point their islands in the sky will shrink to nothing and their retreat will be halted once and for all.


​Relevant studies: Krockenberger et al. (2012) ‘The limit to the distribution of a rainforest marsupial folivore is consistent with the thermal intolerance hypthesis’; Benning et al. (2002) ‘Interactions of climate change with biological invasions and land use in the Hawaiian Islands: Modeling the fate of endemic birds using a geographic information system.’
1 Comment
online essay editing service link
27/10/2017 08:18:39 am

It is evident that the global temperature is rising because of the climate change. Each and every species in the world are affected. Today, most of us just continue on putting down the planet. Nevertheless, I would like to commend people who passionately share their advocacy in protecting the Earth and those who invent technology that will help solve different environmental problems. I hope that everyone will be united and take part in saving our planet. It takes one to make a difference, encourage people to take action.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    OCS Media Team

    The latest in climate science, policy, perspectives and more from the OCS team.

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017

    Categories

    All
    Adaptation
    BEIS
    Climate Justice
    Communication
    COP23
    COP24
    COP26
    Coronavirus
    DEFRA
    Eco Guide
    Economics
    Event Summary
    Extreme Weather
    Food
    Food Reviews
    Fossil Fuels
    Gender
    Global Perspectives
    Government
    Impacts
    International
    Local
    Nature
    Oceans
    Plastic
    Policy
    Pollution
    Race
    Solutions
    UK
    UNFCCC
    USA
    Women And Climate Change

    RSS Feed

Developing informed climate leaders
www.oxfordclimatesociety.com
  • About
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • Our History
    • Advisory Board
    • Our Sponsors
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Videos of Past Events
  • Education
    • The Oxford School of Climate Change
    • Capstone Projects
    • Climate Change and Policy Lecture series
    • COP information
    • Climate Library
  • Action
    • Sustainability Action Guide
    • Decarbonise Oxford
    • College Sustainability Workshops
    • Legacy Campaigns >
      • Sustainability in the Curriculum
      • Oxford Climate Action Plan
  • Media and Arts
    • RISE zine
    • Anthroposphere: The Oxford Climate Review
    • Interdiscplinary Fine Art
  • Blog
    • Articles >
      • International Climate Policy
      • Global Perspectives
      • What you need to know about...
      • Past Blogs
    • Event summaries
  • Get Involved
    • Join Our Teams
    • RISE Submissions
    • Subscribe to our Newsletter
  • Alumni Network
  • Contact
  • Donate