Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
expected to continue as such winter temperatures continue becoming rarer.
This example also illustrates the relevance of seasonal information when
considering the effects of climate change, since in this case it is winter
temperature which controls the spread of the pathogen (Brander 2010).
Finally, the impact of climate changes on the ecosystem services
must also be considered. It is well recognized that services derived from
ecosystems are essential to human welfare (Dobson et al. 2006, Halpern et
al. 2007) and could be critically affected through climate change (Menzel
et al. 2006, Paterson et al. 2009).
Smith et al. (2001) synthesized all possible information on climate-
change impacts to evaluate which impact level would constitute a dangerous
climate change. They used global mean temperature increase (GMTI) in
2100, which is a widely accepted climate change indicator, and determined
related risk levels (low, medium and high) for 5 different ' Reasons for
concern ' characterized by specifi c entities (e.g., unique and rare species,
extreme events, regional distribution, aggregated impacts and large-scale
singularities). These large-scale impacts on species, landscapes, ecosystems
and many of the services they provide (e.g., water purifi cation, slope
stabilization, carbon sequestration and many cultural and aesthetical values)
are mostly non-market impacts. Even though the value of specifi c ecosystem
services (e.g., crops and timber) can be estimated in dollars (e.g. Balmford
et al. 2002), we believe that the actual damages or benefi ts of changes in
species, ecosystems and landscapes are not satisfactorily characterized in
monetary terms.
Oceanic and coastal areas provide important environmental goods
and services to the human population, such as food production, fi ltration
and cleaning of fresh waters, the shoreline stabilization, regulation of the
hydrological regime, dioxide carbon storage and oxygen production, and
many more. They also have a tremendous biological richness: of the 82
recognized phyla, 60 include marine representatives, when exclusively
animals are considered, 36 of the 37 recognized phyla are present in
ecosystems from the oceans and coastal areas, ranging from coral reefs to
seagrass communities, mangroves, coastal lagoons and estuaries (Rohde
1992, May and Godfrey 1994).
Doney et al. 2012 made a full summary of these phenomena.
So, disruptions of existing biological interactions can occur through
asynchronous shifts in the seasonal phenologies of interacting predator
and prey populations (e.g., the match-mismatch hypothesis); biogeographic
reorganizations, leading to changes in community composition and
biodiversity; and, loss of functionally prominent species (Forrest and
Miller-Rushing 2010). Furthermore, and following Doney et al. (2012), these
processes can be expressed through bottom-up impacts such as declines in
water-column primary production (e.g., O'Reilly et al. 2003) and/or shifts
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