Impact of Global Warming on Plant and Animal Biodiversity

This literature review examines the impact of global warming on biodiversity, encompassing both plant and animal life. The review begins with an introduction that highlights the increasing average surface temperatures and the distinction between climate change and global warming. The review then analyzes several research papers, detailing their findings on the adverse effects of rising temperatures, changing weather patterns, and the melting of polar ice on various species and ecosystems. The review discusses how global warming leads to habitat changes, shifts in animal migration and mating cycles, and disruptions in ocean temperatures and acidification, impacting aquatic life. The review also identifies a gap in the existing literature: while the studies presented identify the negative impacts of global warming, they fail to offer solutions for restoring biodiversity. The review concludes by emphasizing the far-reaching consequences of these impacts, including the vulnerability to natural disasters and the need for further research to mitigate these effects.

Abstract
Global warming is a scenario that is experience by every organism living on the earth. It is
just not impacting on several aspects of human life but are also impacting upon the changes
in the lives of plants and animals. The different variety of plants and animals that are
available on the surface of the earth are collectively regarded as biodiversity. These varieties
of animals and plants are also creating a huge impact is there clearly seen to be diminishing
in number. Therefore following is a literature review conducted on these particular researches
that has been conducted by authors before and discuss the findings that every paper has
shared including the gaps in the literatures.
1) Introduction
Since 1906 the average surface temperature in the entire earth has increased over 1.6 degrees
Fahrenheit for 0.9 degree Celsius all around \citep{ramirez2017climate}. The temperature
rise in the Polar Regions is even more sensitive. However the temperature rising at such a
level is the effect of global warming which is appearing as an after effect now. It is resulting
into melting of glaciers and ice found in the polar seas, the Rapid change in precipitation
patterns and also moving of animals from one place to another. There are several
misconceptions which makes any average person conceptualize climate change and global
warming as the same concept. However it is to be kept in mind that climate change and
global warming are two different concepts where the term climate change is mostly used for
understanding the shift in the weather and climate systems of the earth \
citep{garcia2018changes}. It does not only incorporate the average rise of temperature but
also extreme weather conditions shift and the movement of wildlife population and habitats
from one place to another. It also includes the rise of and range of other impacts. The impact
of climate change is also elevated by heat trapping due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

created by the humans. Climate change is an outcome of global warming. On the other hand
climate change impacts on the animal world and plant life which is collectively known as
biodiversity, which is known as the variety of plants and animal lives present on the earth.
Following would be a literature review on the impact of global warming on this biodiversity
discussed in details.
2) Literature review
Many researchers have conducted analysis on the impact of global warming on several
aspects of the earth's atmosphere. For this particular literature review all the impacts of global
warming and the subsequent impact it had on different aspects of the climate and atmosphere
has been listed to find out exact impact the global warming has on the lives of the animal and
plants. All the findings from these researchers have been discussed in details in the following
section.
3) Findings of the research
As per the author \citep{khare2020global} , the Global Warming have resulted into
subsequent changes in climate that is altered the weather patterns across the entire Earth and
also has caused several alarming temperature alterations. This is why the author is of the
opinion that such drastic changes in the temperature, search diversified rise and fall in the
temperature and the rise and fall would also create an impact on the animal and plant lives.
The author has found that several scientist are expecting that the number and range of species
which forms the primary definition of biodiversity is going to be negatively impacted because
of the continuous rise of temperature \citep{johansson2019impact}. The term biodiversity
itself refers to the variation that the earth has already witnessed about the plant and animal
lives. The earth has always being in a state of equilibrium because of the existence of all
these organisms on the surface of the earth and even under the surface of the earth. The

author is of the opinion that if the climate changes are altering the number of biodiversity
resulting into negative impact and loss of biodiversity, the future of ecosystem and
equilibrium all over the Earth including humanity would be affected.
In another research paper, the author \citep{yamaura2017assessment}, has stated that the
climate changes all across the globe because of global warming impacts on the alterations of
environment. This is because the greenhouse gases which has resulted into for the global
warming include carbon dioxide. Primary feature of carbon dioxide is that it has the ability to
absorb heat from some light and does not let it retreat back into the space. It has already been
analysed by the researchers at the level of greenhouse gases are increasingly creating impact
on the rise of temperature. The greenhouse gases are increasing in number and therefore
eventually it would rise the temperature at such a level that by 2100 temperature of the entire
world on an average my tries to 11 degree Fahrenheit or 6 degree Celsius \
citep{tang2018assessment}. The earth's climate is constantly changing over the past few
years and it has presented severity of defect changes affecting the ecosystem and then the
biodiversity.
The author \citep{hyde2016lignicolous}, provided with the statement that the change in
temperature has constantly been rising which is also affecting the polar regions of the earth.
Global warming has also resulted in rapid diminishing of ice packs which has affected the
habitats of the polar animals including Penguins, Polar Bears, and other Arctic creatures
citep{pecl2017biodiversity}. The melting of ice is also resulting to the increase of sea level
affecting the coastline. It is not only changing the habitat of the different animals and plants
all around the world but also causing several problems in disturbing the meeting cycles of the
animals since they are always migrating from one place to another due to the change of
seasons \citep{gruner2017effects}. Change or a shift in reproductive timing is resulting in in
low production of the Arctic animal species. The rise of sea level is also impacting on the

ocean temperature and ocean currents resulting into the aquatic animals and especially
zooplanktons. Zooplanktons are essential part of the food chain following in the aquatic
animals. The impact was not strong that it could even negatively effect on the species of
whales as they required massive amounts of plankton for their survival. The rise and carbon
is also causing imbalances of PH level in the ocean causing acidification which are affecting
the smaller, medium and larger aquatic creatures.
4) Gap in the Literature
The huge impact on the biodiversity, which is making the animal and plant lives difficult to
survive on the planet has even far reaching effects. They are not just affecting the mating
season but also due to the rising population there is a requirement of feeding the human
population which is also negatively affecting the animal world since most humans survive on
animals. Plant pollination is decreasing, making it impossible for the humans to produce
medicine and also due to this there is vulnerability to natural disasters, which has resulted in
two recent cases of several wildfires, not because of any other issue but due to the effect of
global warming on biodiversity affecting the animal and plant lives. All these important
findings have been presented by the authors in their researches but none of them have
presented any solution to this negative impact of global warming so that biodiversity can be
restored as it was in the traditional Times. This has been the gap in the literatures.

References
@article{hyde2016lignicolous,
title={Lignicolous freshwater fungi along a north--south latitudinal gradient in the
Asian/Australian region; can we predict the impact of global warming on biodiversity and
function?},
author={Hyde, Kevin D and Fryar, Sally and Tian, Qing and Bahkali, Ali H and Xu,
Jianchu},
journal={Fungal ecology},
volume={19},
pages={190--200},
year={2016},
publisher={Elsevier}
}
@incollection{khare2020global,
title={Global Warming and Biodiversity},
author={Khare, Noopur and Singh, Divya and Kant, Rama and Khare, Pragati},
booktitle={Current State and Future Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity},
pages={1--10},
year={2020},
publisher={IGI Global}

}
@article{yamaura2017assessment,
title={An assessment of global warming and biodiversity: CGE EMEDA analyses},
author={Yamaura, Koichi and Sakaue, Shin and Washida, Toyoaki},
journal={Environmental Economics and Policy Studies},
volume={19},
number={2},
pages={405--426},
year={2017},
publisher={Springer}
}
@article{gruner2017effects,
title={Effects of experimental warming on biodiversity depend on ecosystem type and local
species composition},
author={Gruner, Daniel S and Bracken, Matthew ES and Berger, Stella A and Eriksson,
Britas Klemens and Gamfeldt, Lars and Matthiessen, Birte and Moorthi, Stefanie and
Sommer, Ulrich and Hillebrand, Helmut},
journal={Oikos},
volume={126},
number={1},

pages={8--17},
year={2017},
publisher={Wiley Online Library}
}
@article{garcia2018changes,
title={Changes in temperature alter the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem
functioning},
author={Garc{\'\i}a, Francisca C and Bestion, Elvire and Warfield, Ruth and Yvon-
Durocher, Gabriel},
journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
volume={115},
number={43},
pages={10989--10994},
year={2018},
publisher={National Acad Sciences}
}
@article{tang2018assessment,
title={Assessment of global warming impact on biodiversity using the extinction risk index
in LCIA: a case study of Japanese plant species},
author={Tang, Longlong and Higa, Motoki and Tanaka, Nobuyuki and Itsubo, Norihiro},

journal={The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment},
volume={23},
number={2},
pages={314--323},
year={2018},
publisher={Springer}
}
@article{johansson2019impact,
title={Impact of global warming on insects: are tropical species more vulnerable than
temperate species?},
author={Johansson, Frank and Orizaola, Germ{\'a}n and Nilsson-{\"O}rtman, Viktor},
journal={bioRxiv},
pages={728352},
year={2019},
publisher={Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}
}
@article{pecl2017biodiversity,
title={Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human
well-being},

author={Pecl, Gretta T and Ara{\'u}jo, Miguel B and Bell, Johann D and Blanchard, Julia
and Bonebrake, Timothy C and Chen, I-Ching and Clark, Timothy D and Colwell, Robert K
and Danielsen, Finn and Eveng{\aa}rd, Birgitta and others},
journal={Science},
volume={355},
number={6332},
pages={eaai9214},
year={2017},
publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science}
}
@article{ramirez2017climate,
title={Climate impacts on global hot spots of marine biodiversity},
author={Ram{\'\i}rez, Francisco and Af{\'a}n, Isabel and Davis, Lloyd S and Chiaradia,
Andr{\'e}},
journal={Science Advances},
volume={3},
number={2},
pages={e1601198},
year={2017},
publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science}

}