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Climate change and its effect on Biodiversity

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

30 Aug. 2009 –Climate Change and its effecct on Biodiversity-Mohamed Wahby & Athar Mostafa

What we are going to discuses???

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We are going to discuses:Climate Change

Biodiversity

Definition

DefinitionValueHotspot

“Copenhagen”

World WideEgypt

There’s always hope

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Climate Change

• It's a changes in regional climate characteristics, including temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind, and severe weather events.

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http://www.grinningplanet.com/2007/01-02/global-warming-vs-climate-change.htm)1(

Biodiversity• UNEP 1995 defined the biodiversity as:

“The variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are apart; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.”

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)2(Environmental biology, edited by: Allan M. Jones, London and New York.

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What's the value of biodiversity?• Generation of soils and maintenance of soil

quality• Maintenance of air quality• Maintenance of water quality• Pest control• Detoxification and decomposition of wastes• Pollination and crop production

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http://www.undp.org/biodiversity/biodiversitycd/bioImport.htm)3(

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• Climate stabilization• Prevention and mitigation of natural

disasters• Provision of food security• Provision of health care• Income generation• Spiritual / cultural value

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Biodiversity hotspot

• A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction.

Refers to 25 biologically rich areas around the world that have lost at least 70 percent of their original habitat.

Biodiversity hotspots amounts to just 1.4 percent of the land surface of the planet, yet supports nearly 60 percent of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species..

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/b/biodiversity_hotspot.htm)4(

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9http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/visual/img_lrg/hotspots.jpg

World’s wide hotspot map

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What are the impacts of climate change on biodiversity?

Global Change

Biodiversity

Human activities

Ecosystems services

Ecosystem process

Environmental Sciences Course for 1st year students – faculty of sciences

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World wide

• Loss of biodiversity refers to predicted changes to the Earth caused by climate change and human activities.

5 to 30 million species of animals and plants – all genetically unique

About 1.4 million animal species have been catalogued and named. There are only about 400,000 named and catalogued plant species.

Most remain unidentified.

http://agclimate.org/lossofbiodiversity.html)5(

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Egypt – Natural reserves

http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/arabic/main/Protectorates.asp)6(

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Statistics

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Egypt’s biodiversity and quest for conservation, by the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs, PDF reportUpdated by: http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/arabic/main/Protect_bio.asp

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Our situation!!!

AFRICA ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK 2 ? OUR ENVIRONMENT, OUR WEALTH- Lead Authors: Robert J. Scholes, Wolfgang Kuper, Reinette Biggs- Contributing Authors:Evans Mwangi, Jeanny Raharimampionona, Peter Lowry, ElHadji Sene, PeterAshton, Stephen Blake, Christopher O. Justice

AFRICA ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK 2 ? OUR ENVIRONMENT, OUR WEALTH- Lead Authors: Robert J. Scholes, Wolfgang Kuper, Reinette Biggs- Contributing Authors:Evans Mwangi, Jeanny Raharimampionona, Peter Lowry, ElHadji Sene, PeterAshton, Stephen Blake, Christopher O. Justice

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Copenhagen

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases? 2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions? 3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?4. How is that money going to be managed?

Four essentials calling for an international agreement in Copenhagen are:

http://en.cop15.dk/)8(

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References • http://energy.berkeley.edu/images/300climate.jpg• http://80.168.51.108/media/image/3/n/Climate_Change.jpg• http://www.gonhs.org/images/BiodiversityPoster2_001.jpg• http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalcolony/2760547579/• http://www.sarawakforestry.com/img/poster2.jpg• http://www.painetworks.com/photos/gm/gm3226.JPG• http://

www.greenpeace.org/raw/image_big_teaser/china/en/photosvideos/photos/climate-change-and-food-securi.jpg