Adaptation of climate

PROGRAM
Adaptation to climate change in ecosystems
Monica Boscaiu &Hugo Merle. Departamento de Ecosistemas Agroforestales.
Universitat Politècnica de València
Topic 1: Concept of climate change.
Topic 2: Climate of the past, of recent glaciations and recent climate.
Topic 3: Mechanisms of adaptation. Wild plants living in harsh environmental conditions. Water use efficiency.
Halophytes.
Topic 4: Crops growing in a drier world: biotechnological tools for climate change adaptation of crops.
Topic 5: Effects of climate change on biological interactions: pollination by insects. Plant-microbe associations.
Migration patterns of species.
Topic 6: Invasive species. Genetic erosion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CkXVF-Q8M

TOPIC 5. Effects of climate change on biological interactions:
Pollination by insects. Plant-microbe associations. Migration
patterns of species.
Adaptation to climate change in ecosystems
Monica Boscaiu. Departamento de Ecosistemas Agroforestales.

• Global change may substantially affect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning but little
is known about its effects on essential biotic interactions.
• Studies on the effects of global change have largely focused on responses in organism
physiology, population size or on community metrics such as species richness, but
knowledge about their effects on conditions for biotic interactions in the novel
communities is scarce.
• Yet, biotic interactions form an indispensable basis for the functioning of ecosystems
and the provision of ecosystem services.
Effect of climate change on Biotic Interactions

Pollination - a key ecosystem function and a
basis for the maintenance of biodiversity
An estimated 60 – 80% of wild plants depends on animal pollination

Pollination –one of the most fascinating mutualistic co-evolution

Economic value of pollination

More consequences:
• Two thirds of the crops humans use for food
production and the majority of wild plant
species depend on pollination by insects
such as bees and hover-flies.
• This ecosystem service, however, provided
by nature to humans for free, is increasingly
failing.
• As an example, after 3000 years of
sustainable agriculture, farmers in the
Chinese province Sichuan have to pollinate
apple flowers themselves
• This is one small example of a problem
occurring world-wide, including Europe.

A global survey of several studies demonstrated a severe decline of pollinators
and provision of pollination services in a wide range of intensively managed
temperate and tropical agroecosystems.
Considering that global crop production worth 153 billion Euros (for Europe 22
billion Euros) relies on insect pollination, the pollinators' decline has direct
impact on the stability of food production and consumer prices, and might also
have serious consequences for human health.
E.g. Sunflowers crops rely
heavily on pollinators

According to a study, the decline of pollinators would
have main effects on three main crop categories
(following FAO terminology); fruits and vegetable
were especially affected with a loss estimated at €50
billion each, followed by edible oilseed crops with €39
billion
Every third bite of food we eat comes as the result of bees and other
pollinators. Honeybees alone pollinate more than 130 fruits and
vegetables that make up a nutritious diet.

In the last half decade alone 30% of the bee population has disappeared and
nearly a third of all bee colonies in the U.S. have perished. Though the rate of
bee depopulation is growing each year, 42% more last year than the year before,
even at the current annual rate the estimated monetary loss is huge
Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
A combination of factors is responsible for the mysterious and dramatic loss of
honeybees, including increased use of pesticides , climate change, shrinking
habitats, multiple viruses, poor nutrition.
However, the biggest cause is the parasite called the Varroa destructor, a type of
mite found to be highly resistant to the insecticide
Pollination

Climate change and pollination
The most plausible and important effect of
climate change on plant-pollinator interactions
can be expected to result from an increase in
temperatures.
Future temperature increase in the tropics,
although relatively small in magnitude, is likely
to have more deleterious consequences than
changes at higher latitudes.
The reason for this is that tropical insects are relatively sensitive to temperature changes
(with a narrow span of suitable temperature) and that they are currently living in an
environment very close to their optimal temperature. In contrast, insect species at higher
latitudes – where the temperature increase is expected to be higher – have broader
thermal tolerance and are living in cooler climates than their physiological optima.
Warming may actually enhance the performance of insects living at these latitudes.
It is therefore likely that tropical agroecosystems will suffer from greater population
decrease and extinction of native pollinators than agroecosystems at higher latitudes.
PREDICTED IMPACT OF WARMING ON THERMAL
PERFORMANCE OF INSECTS IN 2100

 Hegland et al. (2009) discussed the consequences of temperature induced
changes in plant-pollinator interactions. They found that timing of both
plant flowering and pollinator activity seems to be strongly affected by
temperature.
 Insects and plants may react differently to changed temperatures, creating
temporal (phenological) and spatial (distributional) mismatches – with severe
demographic consequences for the species involved. Mismatches may affect
plants by reduced insect visitation and pollen deposition, while pollinators
experience reduced food availability.
Effect of increased temperatures on pollination

Drought may impact floral attractants, making flowers less visited by pollinators
 Flowers with fewer attractants are less attractive to pollinators and will experience
reductions in pollination levels, with decreased seed quality and quantity.
 Crop species experiencing drought stress may also produce lower seed weight and seed
number, resulting in reduced yield.
 Yield reduction under drought may also result from a decrease in pollen viability along
with an increase in seed abortion rates, which have been identified as the most important
factors affecting seed set

Pollination by insects in alpine areas
• Dr. David Inouye, director of University of Maryland's reports that global
warming could disrupt the timing of pollination in alpine environments, with
serious negative impacts to both plants and pollinators.
• Several decades (since 1973) of data on pollination ecology in the Rocky
Mountains.
• High altitudes are one of the habitats where it seems that climate change is
having dramatic effects with important changes going on in flowering.
• The timing of flowering has become earlier, particularly since 1998, the
abundance of some flowers has changed, and the synchrony of plants and
pollinators may be changing.

• Flowering time for plants in the Colorado
Rocky Mountains is determined by when
the snow melts, which is likely to change in
response to regional and global climate
change.
• There is some evidence that plants and
pollinators are responding differently to
climate change, potentially resulting in
reduced reproductive success for both
groups and possible extinctions.
• Impact of global warming on "phenology,"
or the timing of climate-sensitive ecological
events, including insect emergence, and
bird feeding behavior.
• Gloria- Global Observation Research
Initiative in Alpine environments
Pollination by insects in alpine areas

Plant pollination
Consequences:
Global warming affects lower altitudes differently than
higher ones.
 As a result, animals exposed to earlier warm weather may
exit hibernation earlier and birds responding to earlier
spring weather in their wintering grounds may flock north
while there are several feet of snow on the ground, risking
starvation.
 Already the difference in timing between seasonal events at
low and high altitudes has negatively influenced
migratory pollinators, such as hummingbirds, which
overwinter at lower altitudes and latitudes.
 If climate change disturbs the timing between flowering and
pollinators that overwinter in place, such as butterflies,
bumblebees, flies, and even mosquitoes, the intimate
relationships between plants and pollinators that have co-
evolved over the past thousands of years will be
irrevocably altered.

Although coral reefs occupy less than 0.25% of the marine environment, this
community contains more than 25% of marine fishes, and in terms of total
species diversity coral reefs are the marine analogue of tropical rainforests.
Coral reefs and climate change

Locations of coral reefs
Boundary for 20 °C isotherms.
Most corals live within this
boundary.
www.popsci.com/how-coral-bleaching-
happens-video

The scleractinian corals contain symbiotic algal inclusions within its tissues
known as zooxanthellae, which enhance calcification in this dominant group of
reef-building corals.
While the animal is capable of ingesting nutritious particulate material from
seawater, an important component of its nutrition is derived from the
photosynthetic products of the alga.
The algal requirement for light limits the depth to which reef- building corals can
live and form new reef matrix.

There are three aspects of future climate scenarios that raise concerns regarding the
viability of some coral reefs:
- rising sea level
- elevated seawater temperature
- increased concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon
Their combined and possibly synergistic effects could in the next few decades put
coral reefs at greater risk than at any time in the Quaternary.
Extant coral species apparently survived the climate oscillations of multiple ice age
cycles during the last million years, so why should they be considered vulnerable
to changes in climate that are likely to occur in the near future?

Synergistic effects: the effect may be different for reefs that have
been damaged by coastal development pressures.
Changes in ocean chemistry resulting from higher CO2 levels are likely to be
more serious threats to the health of coral reef communities.
Aragonite saturation in seawater is today about 390%. This will decline with
increasing CO2 concentration and the corresponding reduction in pH.
Calculations suggest that aragonite saturation will decline by approximately
30% at atmospheric CO2 concentrations twice the preindustrial level.
Until recently it had been thought that as long as a high degree of saturation was
sustained, the effect on biogenic calcification rates would be negligible.

Aragonite: carbonate mineral, one of the two common, naturally occurring, crystal
forms of calcium carbonate, CaCO3 (the other form being the mineral calcite).
It is formed by biological and physical processes, including precipitation from marine
and freshwater environments.

Effects on biological interactions
.
Consequences:
•Using IPCC scenarios, a doubling of preindustrial CO2 will result in a 9 to 30%
reduction in coral calcification rates.
Aragonite precipitation in the tropics has already decreased by 6 to 11% and will
decline another 8 to 11% when CO2 concentrations become twice their
preindustrial level.
It is also possible that reduced rates of calcification will make reef corals more
susceptible to storm damage (synergistic effects).

Consequences:
A final threat to coral reefs is a condition known as bleaching, which occurs when
the corals lose their symbiotic algae in response to environmental stress.
Some corals do recover following brief periods of bleaching, although the means
by which the algae become reestablished is highly speculative.

Consequences:
If this fails to happen, the coral tissue dies, leaving the calcareous reef substratum
exposed to physical damage and dissolution. Experiments have shown that this
condition can be caused by elevated temperatures, reduced salinity, and
excessive suspended fine particulate matter, and one or more of these factors
have been associated with numerous observed bleaching.
There is also evidence that at elevated temperatures virulence of bacterial
pathogens of corals may increase and that these may be involved in the bleaching
process.

Spatial and temporal range of coral reef bleaching
Mass coral mortalities in coral reef ecosystems have been reported in all major reef
provinces since the 1870s.
The frequency and scale of bleaching disturbances has increased dramatically
since the late 70’s. This is possibly due to more observers and a greater interest
in reporting in recent years. More than 60 coral reef bleaching events out of 105
mass coral mortalities were reported between 1979-1990, compared with only
three bleaching events among 63 mass coral mortalities recorded during the
preceding 103 years.
Nearly all of the world’s major coral reef regions (Caribbean/ western Atlantic,
eastern Pacific, central and western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Arabian Gulf, Red Sea)
experienced some degree of coral bleaching and mortality during the 1980s.

Spatial and temporal range of coral reef bleaching
Regions where major coral reef bleaching events have taken place during the past 15
years Yellow spots indicate major bleaching events.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv7oOgwFNy0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oBh_6XGCNE

Migration, in particular, affects biodiversity at regional and global scales, and
migratory animals affect ecosystem processes.
Animals use predictable environmental cues for the timing and navigation of
migration. A change in these cues will affect the phenology and extent of migration.
Arrival date and hatching date are phenological markers in migrating birds, for
example, that can be strongly affected by global warming.
Migration patterns of species

30
Migratory wildlife appears to be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of
Climate Change because it uses multiple habitats and sites and uses a wide
range of resources at different points of their migratory cycle.
They are also subject to a wide range of physical conditions and often rely on
predictable weather patterns, such as winds and ocean currents, which might
change under the influence of Climate Change. Finally, they face a wide range
of biological influences, such as predators, competitors and diseases that
could be affected by Climate Change. While some of this is also true for more
sedentary species, migrants have the potential to be affected by Climate
Change not only on their breeding and non-breeding grounds but also while
on migration.

Apart from such direct impacts, factors that affect the migratory journey itself
may affect other parts of a species’ life cycle.
Changes in the timing of migration may affect breeding or hibernation, for
example if a species has to take longer than normal on migration, due to changes
in conditions en route, then it may arrive late, obtain poorer quality breeding
resources (such as territory) and be less productive as a result.
If migration consumes more resources than normal, then individuals may
have fewer resources to put into breeding — the large baleen whales may
suffer from this, as they do not feed while on migration.
baleen whales

Birds face longer migration due to climate change
Journey could increase by 250 miles, posing serious threat to many species: as
temperatures rise, long-distance migrants are shifting their breeding ranges
further north, making their return journey even longer than before (while the
birds' breeding ranges are likely to shift northwards, their wintering areas will
not).
Migrating birds such as the garden warbler and whitethroat will face longer
journeys.
Pushing migration earlier in the year could negatively affect birds over the long
term.
garden warbler whitethroat

Higher temperatures cause earlier appearance of the insect prey of hatchling birds,
which exerts pressure on birds to breed earlier so that hatchling development
coincides with peak prey abundance.
 Advanced breeding is dependent on the arrival time of the adults at the breeding
site, as well as the delay between arrival and the start of breeding.
 These traits can change synchronously or asynchronously, and a mismatch between
prey abundance and hatching can cause population declines.

Large-scale climate change may thus form a serious threat to at least some of the
numerous species that migrate from tropical wintering grounds to temperate
breeding areas, because they arrive at an inappropriate time to exploit the habitat
optimally, and face higher competition with resident species that may have
increased in numbers through enhanced winter survival.

In addition to shifts in phenology of migrating animals, some species
have reduced their migratory behaviour or even formed sedentary
populations as a result of anthropogenic changes to the environment .
 A new study now shows that changes in migratory behaviour also alter
the incidence of infectious disease and its transmission . Migration can
reduce the incidence of disease because individuals leave contaminated
habitats periodically, individuals are more separated from each other
during migration, and infected individuals are likely to succumb to
demanding long-distance movement.

Soil organisms interact with one another as well as with plants in a
myriad of ways that shape and maintain ecosystem properties. In fact, soil
microbial interactions, with each other as well as with plants, can shape
landscape patterns of plant and animal abundance, diversity, and
composition.
Plant-microbial interactions are considered negative when the net
effects of all soil reduce plant performance, while interactions are considered
positive when the benefits brought about by the soil community enhance
plant performance such as biomass production and survival.
Plant-soil microbial interactions
Since soil microorganisms regulate nutrient transformations, provide plants
with nutrients, allow co-existence among neighbors, and control plant
populations, changes in soil microorganism-plant interactions could have
significant ramifications for plant community composition and ecosystem
function.

Soils have the capacity to retain large amounts of carbon and their
ability to sequester carbon has helped to mitigate rising atmospheric
CO2. Several factors regulate the amount of carbon soils can
sequester including climate, the parent material, the age and texture
of the soil, the topography, the vegetation type, and the composition
of the soil community.
However, microbial decomposers ultimately regulate the rate limiting
steps in the decomposition process and thus the influence of
abiotic factors on decomposition. Yet, how microbial activity will
influence carbon feedbacks among plants, soil, and the atmosphere is
uncertain.

DIRECT IMPACTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON
SOIL COMMUNITIES AND PLANTS
Climatic change alters the relative abundance and function of soil
communities because soil community members differ in their
physiology, temperature sensitivity, and growth rate
Shifts in microbial community composition are likely to lead to changes in
ecosystem function when soil organisms differ in their functional
traits or control a rate-limiting or fate-controlling step. For instance,
specific microbial groups regulate ecosystem functions such as nitrogen
fixation, and methanogenesis.

INDIRECT IMPACTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON
SOIL COMMUNITIES AND PLANTS
Relative to aboveground plant structures, soils are buffered to changes in temperature,
precipitation, and possibly to extreme events like frost.
Belowground communities are, therefore, structured by different environmental
conditions than aboveground communities and are constrained by different life history
characteristics.
For this reason, the direct environmental pressures plants are experiencing under global
climate change may be different from what their associated soil community is
experiencing.
While plant species migrations in response to climate change are well described most
studies fail to address the ability of associated soil micro-organisms to shift their
range to maintain the positive or negative relationship between the plant and the soil
community . Soil biota may be poor dispersers, therefore they may respond to climate
change at a different rate than plants.
The indirect effects of climate change is the one mediated by plant community
shifts.

The potential responses of plant and associated soil communities to climatic change. Plants and
microbes may respond by shifting population ranges, symbiotic partners, or timing of phenological
events. Each panel illustrates plant and soil community responses to climate change and highlight
possible mismatches between interacting plants and microbes. Shapes of plants and microbes signify
different species.

Microbial communities clearly respond to both biotic and abiotic drivers, but
the indirect effects of climate change, mediated by plant community shifts,
may counteract or be different than the direct effects.
Soil communities may respond to climate stress by changing their
distribution in the soil profil. For example, they may move down in the soil
profile if temperatures at the surface are outside of their
thermal optima range.
Simple questions such as at what scale might microbial dispersal limitation begin
to matter for ecosystem function and how quickly
will microbes adapt to changing climate, still
need to be answered . Experiments using soil and plant reciprocal transplants
across transitional areas such as tree lines or ecotonal boundaries might be one way
to tackle these sorts of questions.

Plant diseases and insect epidemics are to a large degree controlled by climate
and hence will be sensitive to climate change. Newton et al. (2008) posit that
while breeding crops for pest and disease resistance has been relatively effective
under stable climatic conditions, considerable advances will be necessary to
maintain a semblance of balance under more and more turbulent abiotic stresses.
While there is a natural tendency to assume that things will get worse, research
on the effects of climate change on plant diseases continues to be limited.
Effects of climate change on plant disease and insect epidemics

Pathogen and vector responses to
climate change
The range of many pathogens is limited
by climate requirements for
overwintering or oversummering of the
pathogen or vector. For example, higher
winter temperatures of -6°C versus -
10°C increase survival of overwintering
rust fungi (Puccinia graminis) and
increase subsequent disease on plants.
Global warming reduce the ability of
soybean to defend itself against bean
leaf beetle resulting in increased beetle
populations.

Virulence, aggressiveness or fecundity of pathogens
 The number of generations of pathogen reproduction per time interval
determines the rate at which pathogens evolve, and temperature governs the
rate of reproduction for many pathogens: e.g., the root rot pathogen reproduces
more quickly at higher temperatures .
 Longer growing seasons (especially in higher latitudes) that will result from
higher temperatures will allow more time for pathogen evolution.
Increased overwintering rates at higher temperatures will also contribute to
increased pathogen populations.
 Climate change may also influence whether pathogen populations reproduce
sexually or asexually. In some cases altered temperatures may favour
overwintering of sexual propagules, thus increasing the evolutionary potential
of a population.
 Pathogens, like plants, may be unable to migrate or adapt as rapidly as
environmental conditions change. But most pathogens will have the advantage
over plants because of their shorter generation times and, in many cases, the
ability to move readily through wind dispersal.

Host–pathogen interaction responses to climate change
Chakraborty et al. (2000) reviewed the effects of increasing CO2 levels on
plant disease. For biotrophic fungi, they found an increase in disease
severity for six of ten biotrophic fungi studied, and a decrease for the other
four. For 15 necrotrophic fungi studied, they reported that nine exhibited an
increase in disease severity, four exhibited a decrease and two remain
unchanged. This suggests that predicting effects of climate change on
unstudied pathosystems will be challenging.
Some mechanisms of the effects of elevated CO2 concentration on plants
are fairly well understood and will have obvious effects on plant diseases.
For example reduced stomatal opening and changes in leaf chemistry will
reduce the incidence of disease caused by pathogens that infect through
stomata, such as Phyllosticta minima (Mcelrone et al., 2005). But
combining the direct effects of elevated CO2 on plants with the effects on
disease will make predictions of plant productivity even more challenging.

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