Impact of climate change on sensitive marine and extreme terrestrial ecosystems: Recent progresses and future challenges: This article belongs to Ambio’s 50th Anniversary Collection. Theme: Climate change impact

Climate change is the greatest global threat to ecosystems on the Earth. Previous studies assessed the impacts of climate change on sensitive tropical coral reefs, extreme environments in European Alps and the Arctic with a focus on snow and permafrost. This article reflects on the past developments...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ambio
Main Author: Chen, Deliang
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Springer Netherlands 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068744/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33650070
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01446-1
Description
Summary:Climate change is the greatest global threat to ecosystems on the Earth. Previous studies assessed the impacts of climate change on sensitive tropical coral reefs, extreme environments in European Alps and the Arctic with a focus on snow and permafrost. This article reflects on the past developments and future challenges for scientific research and policy response relating to these topics from a peer’s perspective. This leads to the identification of several warning signs for potentially dangerous developments in these sensitive system and extreme environments as well as opportunities for research and policy in the future. While urgent actions are required to limit global warming, science-based policy can provide needed guidance.