Page - 226 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
Image of the Page - 226 -
Text of the Page - 226 -
226 K.vanderGeest et al.
9.3 ImpactsofClimateChangeonEcosystem
Services-CurrentKnowledge
Ecosystems are collections ofmacro andmicroscopic biota that form critical life
support systems. Degradation of ecosystems is occurringworldwide due to over-
exploitation and because of insufficient recognition of the vital importance of the
services that ecosystems provide to humanwell-being (WWAP2015;MA2005).
Climate change has the potential to exacerbate ecosystemdegradation and reduce
the efficiency of ecosystem services (Staudinger et al. 2012; Bangash et al. 2013;
Lorencováet al. 2013).
TheMillenniumEcosystemAssessmentdefinesecosystemservicesas thebene-
fits that people obtain fromecosystems (MA2005) anddistinguishes four types of
ecosystemservices :
• provisioningservices (food,water, fuel andwoodorfiber),
• regulatingservices (climate,floodanddisease regulationandwaterpurification),
• supportingservices (soil formation,nutrient cyclingandprimaryproduction),
• cultural services (educational, recreational, aesthetic andspiritual).
Thequalityofecosystemservicesincreaseswiththelevelof intactness,complex-
ity, and/or species richness of ecosystems (DĂaz et al. 2006).Manyof the negative
consequences human societies experience from climate change are related to the
adaptationlimitsof individualspecies thatprovideuswithfood,fiber, fuelandshel-
ter, aswell as the services provided bywhole ecosystems.Dowand others (2013)
provide two telling examples of such adaptation limits. First, there is a limit to the
temperature that rice in SouthAsia can copewith in the pollination andflowering
phase: After a threshold temperature of 26 °C, every 1 °C increase in night-time
temperatureresults ina10%declineinyield.Beyondanight temperatureof35°Cit
is impossible togrowcurrentricevarieties there,whichconstitutesahardadaptation
limit beyondwhich different types actors (farmers, traders, the economy at large)
incur lossesanddamagesduetochanges intheecosystemservice(Dowetal.2013).
The secondexampledemonstrateshowasociety itself canchoose its adaptation
limits:AftersettlinginGreenlandaround1000AD,thecomplexandadvancedNorse
society thereendedaround1450.Thesettlements’collapsecanbeattributed to their
adaptation limits.When harsh conditions began,NorseGreenlanders adopted new
ways of exploitingmarinemammals as declines in agriculture and domestic live-
stockproductionpersisted.But facedwithgrowingcompetition fromInuit hunters,
declining trade in ivory and furwithNorway as pack ice blocked their access, and
agenerally chillingclimate, these adaptationswere insufficient tomaintain risks to
communitycontinuityattolerablelevels.Atthesametime,theNorsesettlersrefused
toadopt techniques thatproveduseful to the Inuit (Dowetal.2013). Impactsofcli-
mate change on ecosystem services are characterised byhigh levels of complexity
arising from interactions of biophysical, economic, political, and social factors at
variousscales(Ewertetal.2015).Theseimpactsareoftenspecifictoagivencontext
orplace,makinggeneralisationsdifficult.
Loss and Damage from Climate Change
Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Title
- Loss and Damage from Climate Change
- Subtitle
- Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Authors
- Reinhard Mechler
- Laurens M. Bouwer
- Thomas Schinko
- Swenja Surminski
- JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer
- Publisher
- Springer Open
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-72026-5
- Size
- 16.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 580
- Keywords
- Environment, Climate change, Environmental law, Environmental policy, Risk management
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima