A changing climate: prospects for the Azorean bryophytes

• Author(s): Henriques, Débora ; Gabriel, Rosalina ; Coelho, Márcia Catarina Mendes ; Borges, Paulo A. V.
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/3071
• Origin: Repositório da Universidade dos Açores
• Subject(s): Biodiversity; Climate Change; Bryophytes; Azores
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

MOVECLIM, Mid Course Meeting, 2-6 September 2013, Réunion (Mascarenes). As climate change is warming our planet, biodiversity is responding to that input through several different processes, such as range or phenology shifts (Bellard et al., 2012). The main problem with species’ responses is that many seem to be unable to keep up with the fast pace of climate change. Quintero & Wiens (2013) established that projected rates of climate change until 2099 are about 10.000 times superior to the historical climatic niche evolution rates of 540 species of terrestrial vertebrates. If species’ fail to adapt, local extinctions can occur. This is especially true for islands, due to isolation and dispersal barriers. Plants, for example, can only migrate upwards until they reach the mountain summits. From there, they have no place to go, no area to colonize.