Effects of Climate Change on Flora and Fauna: A Case Study of Northern Bettong in Australia

This assessment analyzes the effects of climate change on flora and fauna, including habitats degradation, invasive species, forest fires, population growth, and economic growth. It provides a case study of Northern Bettong in Australia and suggests adaptation options and management plans to save the species from extinction.

Running head: CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE CHANGE
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Author's Note:

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Part 1.
The aim of this assessment is to analyze effects of the issue habitats degradation, invasive
species, forest fires, population growth or urbanization, economic growth on the flora and fauna
in general and how climate change has intensified the seriousness of the issues in the lives of
human beings, plants and animal species of the world. Climate change in the current
environmental setting is more intense to affect the ecological system of the earth that this can
lead to complete destruction of lives. It has affected natural weather system of the earth that has
led to habitats degradation of the animals as well as the humans, invasive species, increasing
forest fires, pollution and all other climatic issue on the earth. There are differed social and
economic problems related to this issue of climate that has forced the human being to face the
wrath of nature.
Earth is a home to various types of animal and plant species who completely depend on
nature for their living. They need specific temperature and habitat to get proper food and survive
(Hing et al., 2017). However due to various reasons like deforestation and urbanization, habitat
degradation of the animals and plants have increased. Climate change however has aggregated
such issue more and affected their existence so severely that the animals and plant who cannot
adapt with type changing weather are gradually getting extinct from the earth. Each of the plant
and animal species evolve for thriving in its own specific ecological niche but climate change
has strong effect on the natural habitats disrupting their specific living conditions (Moseby,
Lollback & Lynch, 2018). Some of the animal and plant species are more adaptable with the
changing climate and changing living conditions. For example, rats and dogs can adapt
themselves with any weather condition but Koala bears cannot survive without eucalyptus and
pandas need bamboo. Human caused climate change has altered natural temperature, sea level

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and precipitation that has started to wipe out the habitats and compel some of the birds and
animal scopes to migrate.
Invasive species are another threat to the native wildlife which can be any type of living
organism that is not native to that particular ecosystem therefore cause harm. These species can
harm the ecology of that place, environment, human health or even economy. These species
grow as well as reproduce quickly but spread aggressively (Pacioni et al., 2017). These cause
harm other species hence referred to as invasive species. Sometimes through intentional and
unintentional human activities, these species can enter the new ecosystem. Now with the change
of climate, the number of such species are growing. For example, lake trout are native to the
Great Lakes but referred to be the invasive species for the Yellowstone lake because they are
tough competition to the cutthroat trout of the native ecosystem.
Forest fires is not beneficial for the wildlife as these are unplanned and damaging.
However most of the wildfire starts due to human activities. In case the wildfire starts in a dry
season it does not only affect the vegetation of the place but also degrades the stream water
quality which indirectly ruin the ecosystem of the place (Settele et al., 2015). The animals and
plants are burnt and killed by the wildfire. This a very common phenomenon in Australian
forests. Some of the animals like deer, elk and kangaroos can escape the harm of forest fire but
the smaller animals like snakes, foxes and squirrels cannot escape. The birds can fly away but
their nests and eggs are burnt. Frequent forest fire affects the wildlife to get injured, dehydrated
and malnourished which can be the reason of extinction of many plant species as they cannot
escape the fire. Since the habitats of the animals and birds get destroyed by the fire, they spend
more time to search for food, water and shelter which make them more vulnerable to extinction

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(Pacifici et al.,2015). Climate change has aggregated this problem as the dryness in the
weather is increasing which is leading the forests to be affected more intensely by the fire.
Population growth is another factor that is closely linked with the climate change. Due
to increased population the need for urbanization is increasing. This is the reason why the forests
are being cut down to make space for the skyscrapers, roads and other elements of cities and
town (Melillo, Richmond & Yohe, 2014). This is firstly affecting the plant species in that region.
As the forest life is affected, the home to the animals and bird species are also harmed. They
become homeless, some of the species are killed by the human and machinery and others are
killed due to scarcity or food and water. Thus, a complete land ecosystem gets devastated by the
urbanization initiative. It is related to climate change of the earth as the human population
pollute the natural air, water and land quality which affect the native animal and plant
species (Kerr et al., 2015). Over population of the cities creates problems of insufficient water,
waste disposal and demands of urban environments which affect the health of the non-human
species and gradually push them to death.
Economic growth effects the flora and fauna of a place. For example, the agro-based
countries which depend upon the export of their productions to the other countries or the gulf
nations which depend upon the export of their national oil or gas to attain economic growth,
depend largely upon the climate change of the place. These countries follow the method of
deforestation to increase agricultural lands as well as mines which reduce the variety of plant and
animal species of that place. Due to climate change, precipitation level reduces affecting the
production of crops and increase the mount of earthquake level affecting the mining business
which affect economic growth more intensely.

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Part 2.
Northern Bettong is very small rat-kangaroo species found in the region of Queensland,
Australia. This is one of the rarest species found only in this country in the whole world. The
reasons of climate change are far reaching impact on this particular species as this is sensitive to
weather change and food habit. Among the present threats that leads to the decline of Northern
Bettong are the threat of the predators most importantly the foxes and feral cats in this region. In
addition to this, the human activities as well as forest fires have posed threat to this endanger
species (Woinarski, Burbidge & Harrison, 2018). This animal species has very special diet like
underground fungi during the wet season of the year and in dry season this switches to fleshy
stems of lilies and Cockatoo grass, fruits, seeds and herbs. Due to climate change, the wet season
is being reduced in Australia which is compelling the species to move towards the wetter part of
the country. In this process of migration, a huge number of Northern Bettong has been
abolishing.
The data collected by Bateman, Abell-Davis and Johnson (2011), regarding how
temperature rise have fastened up the decline process of this particular species reveals that the
high ranging temperature affect the production of truffles on which the species only live and this
can only be found in the wet season and wet part of the country. Due to climate change, drought
has become frequent which and reducing the food amount for this particular species.
According to, Iucnredlist.org (2018), the number of northern Bettong in the Australian
forests are only 5000-10000 which identifies it to be endangered. The effects of climate change
on Northern Bettong has incurred researchers and biologists to identify the process and to
prevent these problems so that this endangered species can be restored. To Woinarski, Burbidge
and Harrison (2018), the adequacy and extent of this species in Australian forest is necessary as

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this is required to spread the spores of eucalyptus plants and spores of the fungi thus helping the
ecosystem to survive but if this species extinct, entire ecology of the place will be lost.
Australia is a home to huge number of birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians Along
with Northern Bettong, other possible species such as sea turtles, coral reefs, vaquita, Christmas
Island flying-fox, mountain pygmy possum and the birds like helmeted honeyeater and orange-
bellied Parrot might get threatened due to climate change. Along with these amphibians such as
Booroolong frog, armoured mistfrog and arthropods like Sydney Hawk also are endangered
species of Australia.
In order to save the species from being extinct, proper adaptation options and
management plans needed to be initiated. Firstly, the restoration of a conservation-oriented fire
regime is needed in which the amount of wet sclerophyll forests will be increased in the
Queensland area. to bring the numbers under control. In order to curb the number of invasive
species the people transport from one place to the other need to be careful so that they do not
carry any plants or animals not native to the place. Most importantly, the emission of greenhouse
gasses needs to be curbed so that the effect of global climate change can be mitigated. Through
the reforestation method in the urban areas and investing more on creating sanctuaries the
animals living in the forests can be secured. Through proper legislation the pollution level will
also be reduced which will mandate to reduce the global warming thus climate change.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the effects of climate change on the given species is
far reaching and putting Australian biodiversity under risk and always under stress. The
uncontrolled pollution, deforestation and urbanization are the main causes of global climate
change. This is affecting the temperature of a land as well as precipitation. Therefore, the plant
species are not getting ample advantages to grow up hence fast moving to extinction. Depending

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on the forest the animal and bird species are also in danger as deforestation leading to lose of
habitat, water and food. This is ignited by forest fire. Therefore, the government organizational
and other agencies are working together to manage such issues so that the species get security to
live on this earth.

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References:
Bateman, B., Abell-Davis, S., & Johnson, C. (2011). Climate-driven variation in food
availability between the core and range edge of the endangered northern bettong
(Bettongia tropica). Australian Journal Of Zoology, 59(3), 177. doi: 10.1071/zo11079
Hing, S., Jones, K. L., Rafferty, C., Thompson, R. A., Narayan, E. J., & Godfrey, S. S. (2017).
Wildlife in the line of fire: evaluating the stress physiology of a critically endangered
Australian marsupial after bushfire. Australian Journal of Zoology, 64(6), 385-389.
Iucnredlist.org. (2018). Bettongia tropica (Northern Bettong). Retrieved from
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/2787/0
Kerr, J.T., Pindar, A., Galpern, P., Packer, L., Potts, S.G., Roberts, S.M., Rasmont, P.,
Schweiger, O., Colla, S.R., Richardson, L.L., & Wagner, D.L. (2015). Climate change
impacts on bumblebees converge across continents. Science, 349(6244), pp.177-180.
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Mykrä, H., Preda, E., Rossi, P., & Uvo, C.B. (2014). Climate change impacts on
groundwater and dependent ecosystems. Journal of Hydrology, 518, pp.250-266.
Melillo, J.M., Richmond, T.T., & Yohe, G. (2014). Climate change impacts in the United
States. Third national climate assessment, 52.
Moseby, K. E., Lollback, G. W., & Lynch, C. E. (2018). Too much of a good thing; successful
reintroduction leads to overpopulation in a threatened mammal. Biological
Conservation, 219, 78-88.

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Pacifici, M., Foden, W.B., Visconti, P., Watson, J.E., Butchart, S.H., Kovacs, K.M., Scheffers,
B.R., Hole, D.G., Martin, T.G., Akcakaya, H.R., & Corlett, R.T. (2015). Assessing
species vulnerability to climate change. Nature Climate Change, 5(3), p.215.
Pacioni, C., Williams, M. R., Lacy, R. C., Spencer, P. B., & Wayne, A. F. (2017). Predators and
genetic fitness: key threatening factors for the conservation of a bettong species. Pacific
Conservation Biology, 23(2), 200-212.
Settele, J., Scholes, R., Betts, R.A., Bunn, S., Leadley, P., Nepstad, D., Overpeck, J.T., Taboada,
M.A., Fischlin, A., Moreno, J.M., & Root, T. (2015). Terrestrial and inland water
systems. In Climate Change 2014 Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Part A: Global
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Woinarski, J. C., Burbidge, A. A., & Harrison, P. L. (2018). The extent and adequacy of
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and Ecological Communities, 21.