Tropical paradises at risk due to the mix of climate and human activity

The combination of climate change, extreme weather conditions and human activity are causing a collapse of biodiversity and ecosystems in the tropics. To describe what is defined as a "perfect storm" is a study, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, which has mapped over 100 locations where tropical forests and coral reefs are at risk: from the Seychelles to the Amazon Rainforest, from the Caribbean Islands to the Maldives.

Many local threats such as deforestation, overfishing and pollution, as is known, reduce the diversity and functioning of tropical forest and coral reef ecosystems. "This in turn may make them less able to withstand or recover from extreme weather conditions and our research highlights the extent of the damage of these interacting threats," explains Filipe França, of Lancaster University, leading the international team. composed of 11 researchers from 8 different universities. "Climate change - explains Cassandra E. Benkwitt, marine ecologist at the University of Lancaster - is causing more intense and frequent storms and waves of marine heat. This causes long-term changes for both corals and fish communities". Tropical forests are threatened by the increasing frequency of extreme hurricanes and the combination of higher temperatures with longer dry seasons, which is leading to the spread of unprecedented and large-scale fires. "Only international action to reduce CO2 emissions can reverse this trend," the survey concludes. (HANDLE).