Climate Change Symposium held at STRI
March 03, 2008
Climate change could cause dramatic shifts in species distributions, and species extinctions, particularly across fragmented or vulnerable ecosystems.
During this century, human-induced climate change may lead to loss of biodiversity on a global scale. Climate change could cause dramatic shifts in species distributions, and species extinctions, particularly across fragmented or vulnerable ecosystems. Major risks to coral reefs and forest ecosystems have been highlighted as have the serious impacts of loss of biodiversity on people's livelihoods.
The Climate Change and Biodiversity in the Americas Symposium gathered more than 170 scientists and resources managers from more than 20 countries from Feb 25- 29, at the Tupper Center
The meeting was sponsored by the Government of Canada, the Smithsonian, the Convention of Biological Diversity, The Heinz Center, UNESCO, IUFRO, WMO, IAI and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. The symposium was presided over by Don MacIver, Environment Canada and Francisco Dallmeier SI. According the them, the synergies needed to respond to global change "will not happen without a conscious attention to biodiversity concerns, and without knowledge of likely future climatic changes."
The role of the scientists at the meeting was to report on their research activities and contribute to provide an overall understanding that will help politicians taking the most difficult decisions to assess the likely impacts of climate change on biodiversity and make informed choices. The results of the meeting will be published in peer reviewed literature as a continuing contribution to the understanding of the inter-linkages between climate change and biodiversity.
The topics discussed were during the meetings were: The current status of climate change and forest biodiversity monitoring throughout the Americas; Impacts to forest biodiversity from global climate change including El Niño events, infectious disease, invasive species, hurricanes, forest fires, etc.; Adaptation and sustainability options, interactions and synergies between global climate change and forest biodiversity; and future networks, research collaborations, and the establishment of an Americaswide network of climate change and of biodiversity sites across climate, chemical and ecological gradients.
To STRI’s Eldredge Bermingham, “having this Symposium in Panama has been especially significant, since the Isthmus has been cause and effect of major changes, both natural and anthropogenic. The scientific research conducted by the Smithsonian in Panama for almost 100 years, allows us to provide a base of scientific knowledge to develop accurate measurements of environmental services to find the best management models for the biodiversity and biological richness of our planet in light of changes in the future."
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