Multistressors Related to Climate Change and Their Effects on Global Biodiversity during the Cenozoic Age
(2018) MVEM12 20181Studies in Environmental Science
- Abstract
- As multistressors have been shown to have significant effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the following study was made with the purpose of examining how a number of stressors specifically connected to climate change may have varied during the latest 65,5 million years and whether it is possible to predict potential effects on global biodiversity in the future. The analyses focused on global species richness during the Cenozoic age along with variables such as variations in atmospheric CO2, sea surface temperatures and global sea levels derived from analyses of various stable isotopes found in marine sediments. The results were primarily based on a Pearson Correlation Test and a One-Sample T-test, including data from... (More)
- As multistressors have been shown to have significant effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the following study was made with the purpose of examining how a number of stressors specifically connected to climate change may have varied during the latest 65,5 million years and whether it is possible to predict potential effects on global biodiversity in the future. The analyses focused on global species richness during the Cenozoic age along with variables such as variations in atmospheric CO2, sea surface temperatures and global sea levels derived from analyses of various stable isotopes found in marine sediments. The results were primarily based on a Pearson Correlation Test and a One-Sample T-test, including data from Fossilworks.org and from an empirical literature study. Two of the variables, sea surface temperature and global sea level, had a significant relationship to global species richness. Variations in atmospheric CO2 were non-significant to species richness. The results suggest that multistressors related to various tectonic events, here expressed as changes in the oceanic circulation and the global mean temperature as a result of tectonic movements of the continents over time, had a higher impact on global biodiversity compared to stressors induced by changes in concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere during the Cenozoic age, based on the time-scale used in this study. However, given the fact that the time-scale used here was measured in millions of years rather than hundreds of thousands of years, those results might be slightly difficult to compare directly to similar effects in the present and thus predict potential future effects on global biodiversity. Based on those results, it is suggested that changes in concentrations of atmospheric CO2 over time result in stress-related short-term effects on global biodiversity compared to other stressors induced by tectonic activity, although the former may still have some potential to affect global biodiversity in critical situations. (Less)
- Popular Abstract (Swedish)
- Multipla stressfaktorer och deras inverkan på jordens biologiska mångfald under Kenozoikum
Multipla stressfaktorer, inkluderat faktorer med anknytning till klimatförändringar, har länge påvisats ha stark inverkan på biologisk mångfald över tid. För att undersöka möjligheten att förutspå potentiella framtida effekter på den globala mångfalden genomfördes därför en studie med huvudsakligt fokus på hur jordens biologiska mångfald har varierat under den kenozoiska eran. Denna geologiska era är känd som den tid då däggdjuren började utvecklas efter dinosauriernas utdöende.
Då så kallade multipla stressfaktorer har länge påvisats ha påtagliga effekter på levande organismer såväl som på hela ekosystem, gjordes i detta fall en studie med... (More) - Multipla stressfaktorer och deras inverkan på jordens biologiska mångfald under Kenozoikum
Multipla stressfaktorer, inkluderat faktorer med anknytning till klimatförändringar, har länge påvisats ha stark inverkan på biologisk mångfald över tid. För att undersöka möjligheten att förutspå potentiella framtida effekter på den globala mångfalden genomfördes därför en studie med huvudsakligt fokus på hur jordens biologiska mångfald har varierat under den kenozoiska eran. Denna geologiska era är känd som den tid då däggdjuren började utvecklas efter dinosauriernas utdöende.
Då så kallade multipla stressfaktorer har länge påvisats ha påtagliga effekter på levande organismer såväl som på hela ekosystem, gjordes i detta fall en studie med syftet att utreda hur stressfaktorer med specifika anknytningar till klimatförändringar har påverkat jordens biologiska mångfald mätt i antal arter under de senaste 65,5 miljoner åren, och huruvida om det är teoretiskt möjligt att förutse potentiella effekter på den biologiska mångfalden även i framtiden. Baserat på en serie analyser med det huvudsakliga syftet att undersöka hur stressfaktorer med dels anknytningar till förändringar i koldioxidhalterna i atmosfären och dels anknytningar till förändringar i jordens geofysiska egenskaper (här representerade av förändringar i jordens globala medeltemperatur och havsnivå i förhållande till idag) har påverkat den biologiska mångfalden över tid, visade det sig att medan stressfaktorer med anknytning till förändringar i koldioxidhalter i atmosfären tycks inte ha haft någon större märkbar påverkan på jordens biologiska mångfald under de senaste 65,5 miljoner åren, hade däremot stressfaktorer med anknytning till jordens geofysiska egenskaper märkbar påverkan på jordens artrikedom över tid. Även om samtliga erhållna resultat dock visade sig vara svåra att direkt jämföra med nuvarande förändringar i nutiden, och således försvårade möjligheten att förutse potentiella effekter även i framtiden; vidare baserat på den tidsskala som denna studie byggde på, går det inte att utesluta att stressfaktorer relaterade till förändringar i jordens atmosfäriska koldioxidhalter ändå kan ha haft effekter på den biologiska mångfalden även i förhistorisk tid, om än inom sannolikt kortare tidsintervall i förhållande till de andra, geologiska stressfaktorer som också undersöktes i detta fall. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8946772
- author
- Mårtensson, Robin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MVEM12 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- multistressors, biodiversity, paleontology, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, sea level, deep ocean temperature, sea surface temperature, carbon dioxide, foraminifera, ocean circulation, Cenozoic, paleoceanography, climate change
- language
- English
- id
- 8946772
- date added to LUP
- 2018-06-12 09:22:45
- date last changed
- 2018-06-12 09:22:45
@misc{8946772,
abstract = {{As multistressors have been shown to have significant effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the following study was made with the purpose of examining how a number of stressors specifically connected to climate change may have varied during the latest 65,5 million years and whether it is possible to predict potential effects on global biodiversity in the future. The analyses focused on global species richness during the Cenozoic age along with variables such as variations in atmospheric CO2, sea surface temperatures and global sea levels derived from analyses of various stable isotopes found in marine sediments. The results were primarily based on a Pearson Correlation Test and a One-Sample T-test, including data from Fossilworks.org and from an empirical literature study. Two of the variables, sea surface temperature and global sea level, had a significant relationship to global species richness. Variations in atmospheric CO2 were non-significant to species richness. The results suggest that multistressors related to various tectonic events, here expressed as changes in the oceanic circulation and the global mean temperature as a result of tectonic movements of the continents over time, had a higher impact on global biodiversity compared to stressors induced by changes in concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere during the Cenozoic age, based on the time-scale used in this study. However, given the fact that the time-scale used here was measured in millions of years rather than hundreds of thousands of years, those results might be slightly difficult to compare directly to similar effects in the present and thus predict potential future effects on global biodiversity. Based on those results, it is suggested that changes in concentrations of atmospheric CO2 over time result in stress-related short-term effects on global biodiversity compared to other stressors induced by tectonic activity, although the former may still have some potential to affect global biodiversity in critical situations.}},
author = {{Mårtensson, Robin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Multistressors Related to Climate Change and Their Effects on Global Biodiversity during the Cenozoic Age}},
year = {{2018}},
}