Study: Global warming affects ecosystems
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Less than 20 per cent of plants and animal species in the world's tropical forests may remain in their current form by the end of the century due to global warming, a new study says.
The study was conducted by Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology and published in Conservation Letters, a journal of the Society for Conservation Biology Thursday.
According to the new study, by 2100, only 18 to 45 percent of the plants and animals making up ecosystems in global humid tropical forests may remain as we know them today because of global warming.
In Latin America and Africa, about two-thirds of the humid tropical forests' biodiversity could alter because of climate change, selective logging and ongoing land-use changes.
In Asia and the central and southern Pacific islands, deforestation and logging are also the primary drivers of ecosystem changes.
The scientists came to the conclusion after looking at land use and climate change by integrating global deforestation and logging maps from satellite imagery and high-resolution data.
"This is the first global compilation of projected ecosystem impacts for humid tropical forests affected by these combined forces," the institution's Greg Asner said.
"For those areas of the globe projected to suffer most from climate change, land managers could focus their efforts on reducing the pressure from deforestation, thereby helping species adjust to climate change, or enhancing their ability to move in time to keep pace with it," he said.
Tropical forests hold more than half of all the plants and animal species on earth. But the combined effect of climate change, forest clear cutting and logging may force them to adapt, move, even die.
