How Does Global Warming Impact on Plants and Animals

Many scientists agree that global warming is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity. It affects humans directly by causing changes in weather patterns. But it also has a significant impact on the plants and animals of the world.

If global warming is not dealt with, it could have devastating effects on many plant and animal species. This is tragic in itself, and these effects could also cause further problems for us humans. They could potentially affect our food sources, result in larger numbers of pests, and much more.

Plants

Any gardener knows that most plants can only grow in certain types of climate. This is just as true for trees and forest plants as it is for rose bushes and decorative shrubs. So major changes in climate could cause indigenous plants to die out in their natural locations.

Many of these plants will not become extinct, but instead will begin growing in more favorable climates. This will disrupt the existing ecosystem and cause the plants that are already there to either die out or migrate northward as well. This will hit especially hard in the frozen tundra regions. The plants there will have nowhere else to go, so the tundra will simply shrink away.

Animals

The demise of plants from their natural habitats is a terrible thing for the animals that feed on them. Species who once had plentiful food may find the plants in their diets more and more scarce. They will be forced to either move northward, find new food sources, or die.

Animals who live in the coldest climates are hit especially hard by rising average temperatures. Sea ice is reduced, thereby shrinking the hunting grounds of predators such as polar bears. The snow dens of animals such as seals are in danger of caving in due to the unusual warmth, often killing the seals. This is bad for the animals themselves as well as for the predators that feed on them.

Fish and underwater mammals are also hit hard by global warming. Many types of fish, such as salmon, need cool water in which to reproduce. An upward shift in temperature would force them to migrate northward in order to survive.

Animals that live underwater but feed on plants near the coastline, such as manatees, also face danger. Rising water levels could wipe out their food sources, as the water might suddenly become too deep for the plants they eat to grow in.

These are just some of the potential effects that global warming could have on plants and animals. Other unforeseen problems could show themselves as well, because it is impossible to predict every possible global warming scenario. The best thing we can do is to work to end global warming, before existing problems worsen and these hypotheses become reality.

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