Study warns of ecosystem collapse

The world’s climate is already changing. Extreme weather events (floods, droughts, and heatwaves) are increasing as global temperatures rise. While we are starting to learn how these changes will affect people and individual species, we don’t yet know how ecosystems are likely to change.

Research published in Nature, using 14 years of NASA satellite data, shows eastern Australia’s drylands are among the most sensitive ecosystems to these extreme events, alongside tropical rainforests and mountains. Central Australia’s desert ecosystems are also vulnerable, but for different reasons.

As the world warms, this information can help us manage ecosystems and to anticipate irreversible changes or ecological collapse.

Read The Conversation piece by a professor from the Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology in Sydney, Alfredo Huete and a research associate in Remote Sensing of Environment, also at the Sydney University of Technology, Xuanlong Ma -  “Rising extreme weather warns of ecosystem collapse: study.”