A Side Effect Of Global Warming
While we assume the worst from climate change – it as a contributor to the extinction of several life forms – a discovery on Europe’s mountain peaks proves different: A rising number of different plant species is spreading over European mountains in a rapid pace. Researchers connect the increase in plant diversity with global warming.
More and more plant types, usually never found on the mountain peaks, are now able to advance from the deep ground to the surface, where they, decades ago, had no chance to survive on. Compared to the ones that have dominated the region before them, the newly grown species are bigger in size, which makes them competitively stronger. This could have the consequence that they, one day, may completely displace the ones that used to grow there, before the climate change happened.
According to studies, the biodiversity of this decade has increased by five times as much compared to the past fifty years, in which especially not-inhabited glacier regions have been affected. The vegetation increase will most likely invite other living beings to come and settle down, and might create a larger system of organisms. This, for a change, is a less depressing piece of news regarding global warming, but at the same time proving that the temperature on Earth is rising.
For now, European’s mountains seem to flourish; however, with the temperatures getting higher, even the mentioned plants will disappear again. It appears that climate change will not be the end for this planet but, over the time, rather the end for all living organisms. We must not forget that this planet once used to be a fireball after all.
Source: Spiegel Online
MHFooL • Apr 23, 2018 at 8:54 am
As the temperature increases, ices in the arctic are slowly melting. Those glaciers have been frozen for millions of years and now that they are melting due to global warming, the sea level will gradually increase and most likely overtime, some islands will disappear and be consumed by the ocean.