Emerging consensus shows climate change already having major effects on ecosystems and species

US Geological Survey: Plant and animal species are shifting their geographic ranges and the timing of their life events – such as flowering, laying eggs or migrating – at faster rates than researchers documented just a few years ago, according to a technical report on biodiversity and ecosystems used as scientific input for the 2013 Third National Climate Assessment.

The report, Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services, synthesizes the scientific understanding of the way climate change is affecting ecosystems, ecosystem services and the diversity of species, as well as what strategies might be used by natural resource practitioners to decrease current and future risks. More than 60 federal, academic and other scientists, including the lead authors from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Wildlife Federation and Arizona State University in Tempe, authored the assessment.

"These geographic range and timing changes are causing cascading effects that extend through ecosystems, bringing together species that haven't previously interacted and creating mismatches between animals and their food sources," said Nancy Grimm, a scientist at ASU and a lead author of the report.

...Another key finding is the mounting evidence that population declines and increased extinction risks for some plant and animal species can be directly attributed to climate change. The most vulnerable species are those already degraded by other human-caused stressors such as pollution or exploitation, unable to shift their geographic range or timing of key life events, or that have narrow environmental or ecological tolerance. For example, species that must live at high altitudes or live in cold water with a narrow temperature range, such as salmon, face an even greater risk due to climate change.

"The report clearly indicates that as climate change continues to impact ecological systems, a net loss of global species’ diversity, as well as major shifts in the provision of ecosystem services, are quite likely," said Michelle Staudinger, a lead author of the report and a USGS and University of Missouri scientist....

Snow geese at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, shot by Brocken Inaglory, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence

Natural capital could create a market value for biodiversity

Andrew Mitchell in "Sustainable Business" blog the Guardian (UK): Last month, Indian environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan told 80 world ministers at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity that: "The mobilisation of resources is the most important unresolved question that we have inherited from Nagoya [conference, Japan 2010]."

Natarajan was speaking in the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) at the convention in Hyderabad, India, where financial discussions centred around the potential doubling of funding for developing countries to meet their commitments to protect biodiversity in the face of its rampant global decline.

Developing countries wanted this scaling up of funding to be enacted within two or three years, but debt-ridden European countries only wanted to commit to doing this by 2020. Other countries, such as Canada and Japan, were reticent about any financial commitments. With such divisions, what hope is there for the forests and wildlife upon which our future security depends?

A quarter of the world's mammals, 13% of birds, 41% of amphibians and 33% of reef-building corals are now at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Over-exploitation of resources, deforestation, pollution and climate change mean that the rate of extinction of plant and animal species is now as much as 1,000 times higher than before humans. The very fabric of the natural capital that underpins our economic prosperity is being undermined. New thinking is needed, and fast.

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, which includes the Aichi biodiversity targets, proposes, halving the rate of habitat loss, expanding water and land areas under conservation, preventing the extinction of known threatened species, and restoring at least 15% of degraded ecosystems, among other things and all by 2020. The High Level Panel, co-sponsored by the UK and Indian governments, submitted a report to COP 11 which preliminarily estimated that upfront funding of $81bn, followed by $30bn a year thereafter was needed to achieve the Aichi targets....

A sculpture of a dodo bird, long extinct, in a park in Poland, shot by Szalax, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license