Impacts of Climatic Change on Ecosystem and Biodiversity

Ecosystem and biodiversity constitute pertinent aspects of environmental wellness (Naeem et al., 2009). Ecosystem in its broader perspective refers to a biological interactive community involving organisms (plants and animals) and their natural physical environment. Biodiversity on the other hand refers to a variety of animal and plant life in a given habitat or in the world in general which to a marked extent, is considered desirable and important (Pimm et al., 2014). Ives & Carpenter (2007) advances this definition by asserting that non-living components of ecosystem such as air, water, soil and minerals have a direct correlation to the stability of ecosystem. This means that any modification to these natural components of environment either results in the reduction or increase in the wellbeing of the interaction among various species of plants and animals within the ecosystem. As climatic change around the globe continues to take an adverse toll, so does it arouse multiple and mixed concerns towards the present and future stability of ecosystem. This is to imply that climatic change has a direct impact on ecosystem. However, what remains unknown is the exact way and to what extent to which changes in various dimensions of climate can impact on ecosystem and biodiversity.

In order to find out the answer(s) to this mystery, one ought to ask the question: How do climatic changes affect ecosystem and biodiversity in various parts of the world? In this inquiry project, this research question is systematically explored by first reviewing relevant literature to unwrap the existing information from research and using that information to accomplish this inquiry. Prior to the exploration of relevant literature in the realm of biodiversity and ecosystem as impacted upon by climatic changes, the following are null and alternative hypotheses to the research question at hand: 

Alternative Hypothesis 1 (H1) - Adverse climatic changes impact negatively on the ecosystem and biodiversity by reducing existence of plants and animals in terms of both number and quality of life in equal proportions. 

Null Hypothesis (H0) - Adverse climatic changes have no significant impact on ecosystem and biodiversity and therefore, neither impacts on the existence of animals nor plants in terms of both number and quality of life. 

Alternative Hypothesis H2 - Climatic changes in different parts of the world impact differently on both quality and number of plants and animals in the ecosystem. 

Null Hypothesis (H0) - There is no significant regional difference in the nature of impacts of climatic changes on animals and plants across the world. 

Literature Review

This section entails literature review from three research studies conducted to investigate the role of climatic change on ecosystem through investigation of various aspects that seeks to provide information in response to the research questions. 

The first research by Garavito et al., (2015) was conducted on the relative impacts of climatic change on the risk of extinction of various tree species in the context of montane tropical Andes. According to the findings of this research study, there are increasing concerns about the danger of climatic change in relation to the extinction of certain tree species. Of the 129 tree species that were investigated in this study, 18-20 percent was found to be highly vulnerable to dangers of climatic change in the near future. However, these findings are relative and subjective to the exact climatic scenario. Further according to this study, climatic change represents a significant percentage of the adverse factors that are most likely to result in biodiversity loss in the coming decades. 

The second research was conducted by Hagerman & Chan (2009) to investigate how climatic change affects biodiversity conservation by looking at the impacts, adaptation strategies as well as recommendations for future research directions in order to provide more insights in this area. The negative impacts of climatic change are likely to pose a significant challenge to the ongoing approaches to biodiversity protection and biodiversity. Changing precipitation and temperature regimes constantly interact with current drivers like loss of habitat to influence the distribution of species despite numerous efforts to protect them within the reserve boundaries. 

The last study in this literature review was conducted by Barnes et al., (2013) on the climatic changes and the impact on the environment with special focus on their effect on the respiratory and allergic disease. This research postulates that human beings have reached a point at which they are producing global climatic changes and modifications. This research anticipates a number of changes affecting respiratory disease. Approaches to change climate include, pollutants, irritants, and increase in ozone-related challenges, carbon concentrations, warmer temperatures, outdoor allergens and appearance of stinging arthropods. 

Methodology

This inquiry was done at a WCS facility using qualitative approach which was deemed more applicable than quantitative since the study required descriptive representation of data and thick description of participants and their environment. The research design utilized in this study was phenomenology which involved investigation of how various regions experienced the issue of climatic increase in relation to biodiversity and ecosystem. Under this design, inquiry method was used and the tool designed to collect data were interview schedules and questionnaires. 

Justification for the Choice of Data Collection Methodology and Tools

Questionnaires were deemed effective in allowing for interactivity in the data collection process. Additionally, it was easier making clarifications and inquiries while using questionnaires as opposed to using other methods and instruments. Lastly, systematic inquiry proved to be the best method for the collection of data required for a qualitative study as opposed to alternative methods of data collection. 

Despite these advantages, distribution of questionnaire that the researcher be available at all times to provide constant clarification and interpretation, implying that the entire process was time consuming. Nevertheless, the researcher’s choice of inquiry method was informed by the fact that a combination of questionnaires and interview schedules as data collection tools served a complementary function (Fontana & Prokos, 2016).

Data Collection Procedure and Timelines

Data collection procedure began immediately after being granted permission from the appropriate authorities including the university administration and the management of WCS facility from which the study was conducted. The researcher received a written confirmation after which the scheduling of subsequent activities was done. The work schedule comprised of specific days of data collection. The study took a period of one month (4 weeks) and four hours were allocated for the study on each day of study, making up a total of 80 hours allocated for the study. 

Ethical considerations that were regarded paramount during this study included anonymity, confidentiality, freedom of participation to the respondents and informed consent. According to Cacciattolo (2015), ethical considerations serve a pertinent role of increasing validity, confidentiality and applicability of data.

Sample Size and Sampling Technique 

The sampled respondents entailed a group of 30 individuals from a WCS facility most of whom were experienced employees who had worked in the facility for at least two years. 

Results and Findings 

Results presented here were obtained from the questionnaire and the interview schedule that were major tools of data collection. Results obtained from these tools are presented in a systematic way as follows; 

Results from the likert scale of the Questionnaire 

	Responses	SA	A	N	D	SD
Statement 1	You look forward to the improvement of climatic change in the next one decade	1	3	12	8	6
Statement 2	Adversities in climatic change are caused by human activities	13	11	1	2	3
Statement 3	Human activities and appropriate responses can be used to reduce adversities in climatic change	6	5	5	7	7
Statement 4	Climatic change affects biodiversity and ecosystem by disrupting animal habitat	4	2	4	9	11
Statement 5	Climatic change affects biodiversity and ecosystem by disrupting animal food leading to starvation	6	5	1	12	6
Statement 6	Climatic change affects biodiversity and ecosystem through pollution	12	8	5	4	1

Interpretation of Data

From the findings of the study described in the likert scale above, respondents who are neutral about the possibilities of climatic improvements in the next one decade are the majority followed by those who disagreed. There also seems to be unanimous acceptance to the fact that majority of climatic challenges are caused by human activities. As to whether climatic changes cause pollution which in turn disrupts ecosystems and reduces biodiversity, a significant proportion of respondents were in agreement. 

Interview Schedule

S. No.	Interview Question	Yes	No
1	Do you have the responsibility as a facility to impact positively on climatic improvement?	24	6
2.	Are you influential to the general public to foster positive climatic change?	20	10
3.	Have you impacted positively on climatic change in the past?	12	18
4.	Would you protect plants and animals in equal proportions if you employed your efforts?	9	21
5.	Do you think plant biodiversity is most adversely affected compared to animal biodiversity?	12	18
6.	Do you think the worldwide impact of climatic changes is similar?	5	25
7.	Do you think majority it is easier to save animal species than plant species?	22	8

Interpretation

From the data analyzed using interview schedule above, it is seen that the WCS management recognizes its responsibility to control climatic change. However the number of positive responses regarding past efforts in controlling climatic change is significantly lower compared to the number of positive responses regarding the its responsibility.

Discussions and Conclusions

The fact that majority of respondents are individuals who represent the general public are looking forward to the role of intervening variables such as government interventions and community education programs among other avenues to bring about a positive change, now that climatic change apparently leads to the decrease in biodiversity and adversities in the ecosystems. Although human activities are strongly attributed to biodiversity loss, the agreement as to whether human activities are still the avenues for dealing with climatic challenges is not unanimous. While the first part of this statement is in agreement with (Tilman et al., 2017), this research is empirical in the sense that majority of the respondents are from WCS facility which means that information given is more reliable. This implies that there are other approaches to the correction of biodiversity challenges other than human activities. These approaches may include government interventions, organizational efforts, and industrial regulations. Nevertheless, human activities also form a substantial percentage of correctional efforts to the situation. Since the percentage of respondents that agreed with this statement was less than half of the total respondents, it can be concluded that pollution is among the leading factors to the destruction of biodiversity, though not the very leading contributor. 

Further, the fact that the center recognizes its responsibility to control environmental pollution but has not done so much may imply that either the management lacks the capacity to do so or there have not been serious policies regarding this course of action. Lastly, the two aspects that regard the research questions have also been answered in this analysis. First, there is no significant difference in the number and quality of plants and animals impacted upon by the change in climate. Secondly, Climatic changes in different parts of the world impact differently on both quality and number of plants and animals in the ecosystem.

Recommendations

Overall, the nature and impact climatic change to biodiversity is adverse and possibilities are that this phenomenon may worsen in the near future. This is in agreement with research findings of (Titeux et al., 2016) on the trends of biodiversity across the globe in the past decades. This calls for more research in this area to investigate appropriate course of action to reduce these adversities. Also the WCS should also take responsibility and call in the efforts and contribution of other significant organizations and groups to reduce the adversities of climatic change on biodiversity and ecosystem. 

References

Barnes, C. S., Alexis, N. E., Bernstein, J. A., Cohn, J. R., Demain, J. G., Horner, E., ... & Phipatanakul, W. (2013). Climate change and our environment: the effect on respiratory and allergic disease. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice , 1 (2), 137-141.

Cacciattolo, M. (2015). Ethical considerations in research. In The Praxis of English Language Teaching and Learning (PELT) (pp. 61-79). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.

Fontana, A., & Prokos, A. H. (2016). The interview: From formal to postmodern . Routledge.

Garavito, N. T., Newton, A. C., Golicher, D., & Oldfield, S. (2015). The relative impact of climate change on the extinction risk of tree species in the montane tropical Andes. PloS one , 10 (7), e0131388.

Hagerman, S. M., & Chan, K. M. (2009). Climate change and biodiversity conservation: impacts, adaptation strategies and future research directions. F1000 biology reports , 1 .

Ives, A. R., & Carpenter, S. R. (2007). Stability and diversity of ecosystems. science , 317 (5834), 58-62.

Naeem, S., Bunker, D. E., Hector, A., Loreau, M., & Perrings, C. (Eds.). (2009). Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human wellbeing: an ecological and economic perspective . Oxford University Press.

Pimm, S. L., Jenkins, C. N., Abell, R., Brooks, T. M., Gittleman, J. L., Joppa, L. N., ... & Sexton, J. O. (2014). The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection. Science , 344 (6187), 1246752.

Tilman, D., Clark, M., Williams, D. R., Kimmel, K., Polasky, S., & Packer, C. (2017). Future threats to biodiversity and pathways to their prevention. Nature , 546 (7656), 73.

Titeux, N., Henle, K., Mihoub, J. B., Regos, A., Geijzendorffer, I. R., Cramer, W., ... & Brotons, L. (2016). Biodiversity scenarios neglect future land‐use changes. Global Change Biology , 22 (7), 2505-2515.