12-14 September, 2011, Lucknow - Earth Science India

National Conference on Science of Climate Change and Earth’s Sustainability: Issues and Challenges ‘A Scientist-People Partnership’
12-14 September, 2011, Lucknow
IMPACT OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ON
ECOSYSTEMS AND THEIR RESTORATION
Swati Sachdev, Sakshi Kapoor and V.P. Sharma
CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow
The climate change is a long term change in the statistical distribution of weather
patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. The fauna and flora of
the world has been subjected to destruction due to global climate change. All the
communities of plants and animals exist in a dynamic equilibrium with their
environment, the disturbance in environment, directly and adversely affect these
communities. The global climate changes may result into water stress, changes in
weather patterns, increase in mean temperatures, changes in pattern of precipitation,
increasing incidence of extreme climatic events, sea level rise, enhancing the incidence
of vector borne and infectious diseases, reduction of forest and wildlife diversity, etc.
the potential effects on health due to sea level rise will include death and injury due to
flooding, agriculture produce, reduced availability of fresh water due to salt water
intrusion, distribution of disease spreading insects, population displacement. The
population explosion, increasing trend of industrialization and adoption of latest
technology has resulted into the excess use of materials like metals, petroleum, plastics,
etc. and contributed enormously in global climate change. The burning of plastic
substances produces toxic and fugitive emissions which has raised the concentration of
Green House Gases (GHG) in the environment and degraded its quality. The climate
change may increase air pollution levels by accelerating the atmospheric chemical
reactions that produce photochemical oxidants due to a rise in the temperature.
The ecological restoration methodologies should not be same for all types of
ecosystem as the degree of degradation differs ranging from arid and semi-arid lands,
tropical and sub- tropical forests, aquatic and marine ecosystem. The Ecosystems, in
various regions across the world have already been affected by changes in climate. The
Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change reviewed relevant published studies of
biological systems and concluded that 20% to 30% of species assessed may be at risk of
extinction from climate change impacts exceed 2-3°C (3.6- 4.5°F) relative to preindustrial
levels. The climate change has both adverse and beneficial effects on species.
The future strategies for adopting new changes and restoration should be
scientifically planned with multidisciplinary inputs with understanding of implication
on transboundary areas and transformation of genetic diversity, ecological hierarchy,
competitive interactions. We should take cognizance of Meteorological Department
Information. Future- aimed restoration methodologies are required to consider the
dynamic nature of ecological communities with multiple trajectories, and connect
landscape elements for improving ecosystem functions structures. The use of renewable
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