Effect of Climate Change On Plant Biodiversity - Indirect Impacts of Climate Change

Indirect Impacts of Climate Change

All species are likely to be not only directly impacted by the changes in environmental conditions discussed above, but also indirectly through their interactions with other species. While direct impacts may be easier to predict and conceptualise, it is likely that indirect impacts are be equally important in determining the response of plants to climate change.

A species whose distribution changes as a direct result of climate change may ‘invade’ the range of another species for example, introducing a new competitive relationship.

The range of a symbiotic fungi associated with plant roots may directly change as a result of altered climate, resulting in a change in the plants distribution.

A new grass may spread into a region, altering the fire regime and greatly changing the species composition.

A pathogen or parasite may change its interactions with a plant, such as a pathogenic fungus becoming more common in an area where rainfall increases.

Increased temperatures may allow herbivores to expand further into alpine regions, significant impacting the composition of alpine herbfields.

There are innumerable examples of how climate change could indirectly affect plant species, most of which will be extremely difficult to predict.