Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
• A reduction of beneficial organisms for pest and disease control.
• A reduction in the effectiveness of safe pesticides and herbicides
negative effects on plant resistance.
12.2
WIDE SPREAD EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Some effects of climate change appear to be impacting plants worldwide.
For instance, evidence has shown that climate change has been affect-
ing vegetation patterns such as phenology (the timing of life cycle events
in plants and animals, especially in relation to climate) and distribution.
Some wild plants have begun to flower earlier and shift their ranges in
response to changing temperatures and weather patterns. Shifting phe-
nologies and ranges may seem of little importance at first glance, but they
have the potential to cause great challenges to species survival. They fur-
ther serve as harbingers of future environmental conditions from climate
change. Increased weather extremes are also predicted to accompany cli-
mate changeand plant species resilience in the face of these weather events
may also factor into their abilities to adapt and survive.
12.2.1 SHIFTS IN PHENOLOGY
As the climate warms, many plants are flowering 8.5 times sooner than
experiments had predicted, raising questions for the world's future food
and water supply, a new international study concludes. Higher carbon di-
oxide emissions from burning fossil fuels can affect how plants produce
oxygen, and higher temperatures can alter their behavior. Shifts in natural
events such as flowering or leafing, which biologists call phenology, are
obvious responses to climate change. They can impact human water sup-
ply, pollination of crops, the onset of spring (and allergy season), chances
of wildfires and the overall health of ecosystems.
12.2.2 EVIDENCES OF EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The life cycles of plants correspond to seasonal cues, so shifts in the tim-
ing of such cycles provide some of the most compelling evidence that
global climate change is affecting species and ecosystems (Cleland et al.,
