“Migrations speak to us, not just as observers, but as integral parts of nature.”
How can we be certain of the grave danger to Nature? The question should concern us all.
Well, the Nature also provides the answer.
A bioindicator or biomonitor is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment.
These species have to be sensitive to foreign disturbances more than others and have to be strong enough to survive it.
For example: mosses, lichens, bees, butterflies, corals(they abandon their colonies with algae in case water characteristics change even minutely and become Colourless or bleached), salmons etc.
A new WCS-led study reveals that mountain-dwelling species fleeing warming temperatures by retreating to higher elevations may find refuge from reduced human pressure.
It shows us that nearly 60 percent of all mountains are under intense human pressure. Most of the pressure is at low elevations and mountain bases, which tend to be easier places for people to live, grow food, and build roads.
Species are adapted to certain temperature conditions.
“As temperatures warm in mountains, scientists have documented species moving to higher elevations to maintain the same temperatures,” said Paul Elsen, a WCS Climate Adaptation Scientist who participated in the concerned study.
This is again a jeopardising condition as these migratory species will have lesser land area and lesser habitat to occupy, leaving them even more vulnerable.
Climate change is all pervasive. It can’t be reversed but its actions can be attenuated.
As it proceeds, it displaces everything from moose to microbes, it’s affecting human foods, businesses, and diseases, cutting through the cycles, stripping off the food chains.
When we are considering this under-pressure migration, we’re talking about a redistribution of the entire planet’s species.
A tally of more than 4,000 species from around the world shows that roughly half are on the move.
Species on land = at the speed of 10 miles per decade
Species in water = 4 times the above
Another sounding impact would be the shifting time of biological cycles and it can completely change the whole ecology of the forest.
Some people and species may be benefiting from the inherent changes to the climate like Bananas(though in the short run and may disappear later). It’s yield has increased significantly at places where it would not had been otherwise.
So what may be the consequences?
Species travel both in time and space within an ecosystem. And all of them are not shifting at the same pace.
That is they are not all responding to the same signals. Some are adapting to temperature changes, others are more influenced by sunlight or changes in precipitation. Individual responses may differ as well.
This will anyhow serve appropriate for greater changes triggered and Natural selection would fall in place.
At places, hybrids may result from interbreeding of species that have been newly thrown together by climate change.
Indigenous species may fall prey to invasive species and may lose their habitat. For example, In Sweden there’s a lake that has forever been known as The Lake of Pine Trees; it’s now surrounded by birch.
Ecological relationships may change altogether, food preferences may not comply with the new places. For plant species, the pollination may not be triggered in time bound manner.
The concerned specie may become threatened being distributed and may stand on the verge of extinction.
Impact on Humans:
Countless and unimaginable threats can come our way. These stressed-migration by species may be pushing disease-carrying insects into new areas, moving the pests that attack crops and shifting the pollinators that fertilise many of them, toppling the agricultural produce altogether.
This may in turn hurt the existing industries too like tourism, forestry etc.
Therefore, the benefits to humans being provided by species, and their complex ecosystems they live in, are also at risk eg Marshes, mangroves, wetlands.
The scientists also warn of feedback effects that can exacerbate climate changes.
Eg: poleward spread of bark beetles in northern hemisphere forests. The beetles attack trees that may already be weakened by warmer, drier conditions, leading to more severe pest outbreaks and tree deaths. This in turn provides more fuel for forest fires, releasing more planet-warming carbon dioxide.
This reshuffle of Earth’s biodiversity may redesign the face of Earth. Unless, the awakened citizenry be cognisant of such changes and protect even a minute change at one’s end.
CMS(convention on Migratory species) and several directed projects are in place to serve any such organism that is shifting due to aforesaid reasons.
It is of utmost importance that we protect our Nature in a newly changing era. Be determined with our conservation efforts.