Climate change impacts on the natural world are accelerating rapidly.

‘Many plants and animals are proving to be highly sensitive to the changes in climate we have experienced over the last few decades’ says Professor Lesley Hughes from Macquarie University

Lesley says there are now hundreds, if not thousands of examples of shifts in distributions of plants and animals as they respond to the changing climate. ‘We are also seeing insects emerging earlier, many animals mating earlier, plants flowering earlier, and migrating birds arriving in Australia sooner and leaving later,’ says Lesley. ‘In some cases, the responses of individual species are having significant flow on impacts to ecological communities.’

For example, the long-spined sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) has expanded its range from coastal NSW to Tasmania, where it has established extremely successfully. As the urchin eats kelp, this shift has had huge impacts on kelp beds, affecting the habitat of many other species, including commercial lobster populations.

Such movements are consistent with responses to the changing climate. While species will adapt where possible, we can facilitate adaptation in the natural environment by reducing the impacts of other, non-climatic pressures, increasing the size of protected areas, and providing migration corridors. Identifying the potential for unintended negative impacts on biodiversity resulting from human adaptive responses will also be important. Protecting coastal infrastructure by building sea walls, and replenishing sand on beaches after storms may all have negative consequences for coastal fauna.

There is another species changing its seasonal behaviour. Climate scientist David Viner observed that the date journalists called him to ask whether spring had arrived early was happening earlier and earlier each year!

Have you noticed any changes in plants and animals?
What options are there to assist adaptation in your natural environment?