Dryad Networks’ Post

Climate change threatens small and light-colored Butterflies: Study groundreport.in/?p=193372 New study by @Cambridge_Uni #ecologists reveals how wing length and color affect #butterflies' ability to cope with #risingtemperatures. Findings highlight vulnerabilities in small-winged species due to #climatechange

Climate change threatens small and light-colored Butterflies: Study https://lnkd.in/dPTMyVde New study by @Cambridge_Uni #ecologists reveals how wing length and color affect #butterflies' ability to cope with #risingtemperatures. Findings highlight vulnerabilities in small-winged species due to #climatechange

#GreatLakes #IceFreeGreatLakes #TristaVickMajors #MichiganTech #TitusSeilheimer #UniversityOfWisconsinMadison #EricPeace #LakeCarriersAssociation "... As climate change accelerates, scientists are scrambling to understand how iceless winters could affect the world's largest freshwater system. Most of the effects are still theoretical since the lakes are generally too treacherous for data-gathering expeditions during the coldest months and biologists have long thought that little ecological activity takes place under the ice anyway. But they say the changes could have serious environmental, economic and cultural impacts, including by harming certain fish species, eroding beaches, fueling algae blooms and clogging shipping channels. “This year really drives home the point that we need to collect more data,” says Trista Vick-Majors, an assistant biology professor who studies aquatic ecosystems at Michigan Tech. “There's just no way you can predict how an ecosystem is going to respond to the large-scale changes we're looking at.” ... Ice coverage on the lakes, which have a combined surface area roughly the size of the UK, has generally peaked in mid-February over the last 50 years, with as much as 91 per cent of the lakes covered at times, according to the Great Lakes Ice Tracker website. As of mid-February this year, only 3 per cent of the lakes was covered, which was the lowest figure since at least 1973, when the site's records begin. ... Iceless lakes could absorb sunlight faster and warm up sooner in the spring. Some biologists speculate that this could lead to earlier and larger blue-green algae blooms, which can be toxic to humans and put a damper on summer tourism. Without ice, the lakes' upper levels will likely warm even more quickly than usual, contributing to thermal stratification, in which layers of colder and warmer water form. Less oxygen would make it into the lower, colder and denser levels, which could cause plankton and other organisms to die, some scientists believe. Whitefish and lake trout typically hatch in the spring and feed on plankton, so less plankton would likely cause fish populations to shrink, potentially leading to tighter fishing quotas and higher prices at grocery stores and restaurants. Less ice could translate to longer fishing seasons, but winter storms could wreck nets and traps and destroy whitefish eggs that rely on the ice for protection, says Titus Seilheimer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison fisheries specialist. ... Less ice also could lead to a longer lake shipping season. But without ice blanketing the lakes, powerful winter storms could erode shorelines more than usual, which could push more sediment into harbors and make them shallower and trickier to navigate, says Eric Peace, vice president of the Lake Carriers Association, a trade group. Coupled with lower lake levels due to increased evaporation, ships might have to carry less cargo so they would sit higher in the water, he adds. ..."

#desertification : The spatial arrangement of plants in drylands can be a sign of the environment degrading. We urgently need to understand how ecosystems respond to a lower humidity and less available water, given the increase of extreme drought events expected under the impending climate crisis.

Our new study highlights the complex interplay between fire-prone invasive species, #fire and land-use strategies, and climate change 🧐 we need to consider the interactions between #land-use and fire management to control #invasive species and #landscape resilience https://lnkd.in/dU95fvHi

Many tree species are moving to colder and wetter regions: Climate change is likely to push tree species toward the colder and wetter parts of their geographical distribution #EarthDotCom #EarthSnap #Earth

A fascinating new review paper on species range shifts under climate change summarizes several critical aspects of such redistributions.  The authors synthesize approaches to documenting species redistributions, potential reasons for mismatches between observations and expectations, and the impact of such changes on nature and society. Interestingly, they find that while most (59%) "of documented range shifts are directionally consistent with climate change....many observed species have not shifted or have shifted in directions opposite to temperature-based expectations". These contrary-to-expectation observations could be due to various factors, from non-temperature climatic drivers to habitat characteristics or species interactions.   The review emphasizes the need for observational data to inform generalizability and prediction of range shift patterns. This improved understanding will be essential for managing species range shifts now and into the future.  Be sure to read the full article at the link below! 

Fascinating article about the discovery of a rule applying to all tropical forests' tree species composition. This discovery should allow us to understand the implications of climate change on tropical forest carbon sinks etc. https://lnkd.in/e_uh4GRt