Climate change destroys unique ecosystems in Asia

Fossil pollen from Asia with geological, faunal and climate data sets has helped scientists

identify an environmental disaster thatoccurred about 34 million years ago. It was caused by rapid climate change and the predominance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Large areas of Mongolia, Tibet and northwestern China have become hyperarid deserts with little vegetation cover. Larger animals were largely replaced by small mammals such as rodents. Today, deserts have begun to rapidly expand again across the region, possibly signaling new ecological devastation.

Fossil pollen images usingscanning electron microscope (SEM), used to reconstruct ancient ecosystems in Central Asia; from left to right: Nitraria sp. (polar species), Nitraria sp. (equatorial view) and Ephedra sp. (equatorial view). These drought-tolerant and salt-tolerant shrubs dominated landscapes at the end of the Eocene (40–34 million years ago), but now they are rare plants in the Asian steppes. The scale bars represent 5 μm (1 μm = 0.001 mm). Photo: Nitraria pollen was photographed by Karina Hoorn at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and at the Faculty of Paleontology at the University of Vienna. The middle image was previously published by Hoorn et al. (2012), DOI: 10.1016 / j.palaeo.2012.05.011. Credit: Fang Khan of Stockholm University

“Results matter for the futurebiodiversity, agriculture and human well-being, ”explains Dr. Natasha Barbolini, lead author and researcher in paleoecology at the University of Amsterdam (now the University of Stockholm). “Past experience shows that the Central Asian region will never recover its unique biological diversity if desertification continues.”

"Bringing together 43 million years of evolutionallowed us to understand the resilience of these ecosystems in a whole new way, ”said Dr. Karina Horn, co-lead author of the study and associate professor at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam. “Despite the fact that some of the plants that once dominated still exist in the region today, they are relatively rare. This proves that populations can be permanently changed by rapid climate change, even if large-scale extinctions do not occur. ”

Today in Central Asia are some of thethe oldest known deserts; and the highest mountains outside the Himalayas. This geological and climatic diversity has given rise to an astonishing number of species that call this region their home. But now these species are threatened by modern climate change. Nearly half a billion people who live in these areas are also affected by climate change, making it increasingly difficult for them to earn a living. Droughts devastate crops, and the growing amount of sand destroys the natural steppes necessary for grazing.

In their article, the authors warn thatthe Asian steppes are being modified for human use and are being lost to desertification at an unprecedented rate. This trend needs to be reversed in order to preserve what is now one of the most fragile land biomes in the world.

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