Climate Change and Tipping Points
Unusually high temperatures on the west coast of North America, more violent tropical storms are just some indicators of climate change. What happens when changes become irreversible? Dr Anjani Ganase considers a few indicators of ecosystems approaching tipping point. Tipping points are the environmental conditions beyond which an ecosystem can no longer cope with change. There is no going back when a tipping point is reached. The result is an irreversible shift to an alternative ecological state. Such shifts are usually associated with loss in biodiversity and changes in ecosystem services. Climate change drives unstable environmental conditions; and push organisms beyond their thresholds of tolerance; leading to mass die off and no recovery in a permanently transformed environment. Scientists are concerned about the global reach of climate change driving ecological tipping points that will permanently change the biomes that we depend on to survive. Th...