page_title: Effects of global warming
section_title: Biological systems
hierarchical_section_title: Effects of global warming / Biological systems
caption_attribution_description: English: The diagram shows widespread evidence of warming temperatures having affected many physical and biological systems across the world. From the source, written by Cynthia Rosenzweig (2008): "Researchers from NASA GISS and from 10 other institutions across the world analyzed data from published papers on 829 physical systems and some 28,800 plant and animal systems, stretching back to 1970. [...] In physical systems, 95 percent of observed changes are consistent with warming trends. These include wastage of glaciers on all continents; melting permafrost; earlier spring river runoff; and warming of water bodies. The study also found that 90 percent of documented changes among living creatures are consistent with warming. [...] It is unlikely that any force other than human-influenced global warming could be driving these changes; factors such as deforestation or natural climate variations could not explain it. The work builds upon the consensus of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which in 2007 declared human-made climate warming "likely" to have discernible effects on biological and physical systems" (end quote of Rosenzweig, 2008). The diagram itself shows the location and consistency of observed changes with warming. Changes in physical systems include snow, ice and frozen ground as well as hydrology and coastal processes. Changes in biological systems include terrestrial, marine and freshwater biological systems. The diagram also shows linear trends of surface air temperature between 1970 and 2004. The trends in surface air temperature are based on the "HadCRUT3" dataset, which has been developed by the UK Hadley Centre and the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) (Jones and Salmon, 2011). The CRU is based at the University of East Anglia, in the UK. Some parts of the mapped data are white. These areas do not contain sufficient climate data to estimate a trend. "Our findings show that patterns of change are strongest in North America, Asia and Europe, mainly because far more studies have been done there. On the other continents, including South America, Australia and Africa, documentation of changes in physical and biological systems is sparse, even though there is good evidence of human-influenced warming itself. There is an urgent need to study these and other environmental systems, especially in tropical and subtropical areas" (Rosenzweig, 2008).
context_page_description: The effects of global warming or climate damage include far-reaching and long-lasting changes to the natural environment, to ecosystems and human societies caused directly or indirectly by human emissions of greenhouse gases. It also includes the economic and social changes which stem from living in a warmer world. Human caused climate change is one of the threats to sustainability.
  Many physical impacts of global warming are already visible, including extreme weather events, glacier retreat, changes in the timing of seasonal events, sea level rise, and declines in Arctic sea ice extent. The future impact of global warming depends on the extent to which nations implement prevention efforts and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ocean acidification is not a consequence of global warming, but instead has the same cause: increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
  Climate change has already impacted ecosystems and humans as well. In combination with climate variability, it makes food insecurity worse in many places and puts pressure on fresh water supply. This in combination with extreme weather events, leads to negative effects on human health.
context_section_description: Recent warming has strongly affected natural biological systems.  Species worldwide are moving poleward to colder areas. On land, species move to higher elevations, whereas marine species find colder water at greater depths. Of the drivers with the biggest global impact on nature, climate change came third over the five decades before 2020, with change in land use and sea use, and direct exploitation of organisms having a larger impact.
  Significant disruptions of ecosystems are projected to increase with future climate change. Examples of disruptions include disturbances such as fire, drought, pest infestation, invasion of species, storms, and coral bleaching events. The stresses caused by climate change, added to other stresses on ecological systems (e.g. land conversion, land degradation, harvesting, and pollution), threaten substantial damage to or complete loss of some unique ecosystems, and extinction of some critically endangered species. Key interactions between species within ecosystems are often disrupted because species from one location do not move to colder habitats at the same rate, giving rise to rapid changes in the functioning of the ecosystem.
caption: A vast array of physical and biological systems across the Earth are being affected by human-induced global warming.[197]
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