Section 1: Summary
The Andes Mountains are one of the most biodiverse
regions on the planet. In an
increasingly warming world, it is critical for researchers to monitor changes
that pertain to climate change there.
This is because changes in the environment impact ecological systems
across the world. Important questions to
answer regarding climate change in the Andes are: to what extent has climate
change impacted biodiversity, and to what degree is it projected to change
biomes? Answering these questions can
help conservationists better prepare for changes in the environment that impact
biodiversity in the Andes Mountains.
Several research methods were used in the study. A literature review was conducted to show
previous findings on climate change’s impact on Andean vegetation; a sample of
19 locations were analyzed to see how different elevations and slope
orientations respond to climate change models; and species distribution models
were compared with changes in Andean climate biomes to see how biodiversity has
been affected. No instruments were used
in this research- only data that was analyzed using models to project the changes
in Andean biodiversity. An important
finding from the study is that the degree of climate change is increasing with
elevation in the Andes, leading to a significant loss of biodiversity in its
temperate rainforest biomes.
Section 2: Review
According
to the researchers, data for the problem can be extracted from all the current
literature on the topic. However, as we
will see later, there are a few gaps in the data that render this approach
insufficient. As such, there was no
educational significance stated in the article, but it is important to educate
people on the impacts of climate change in all regions. A case study on the Andes like this one is critical
to informing people of the potential dangers in loss of biodiversity that
result from climate change.
Since
the analysis of past data needed to be involved, the researchers used a wealth
of prior research in their study. They
specifically used 742 records of vegetation responses to climate change in the
Andes from prior research. 32 studies
were also cited for plant distribution modeling for the purpose of seeing how
the spatial extent of biomes are changing.
Thus, all the cited information was relevant to the study.
A
hypothesis wasn’t specifically stated, just that the study would assess
projected future climate change and its potential impacts on the region. This was to be analyzed using models. 19 sample sites with unique elevation and
slope were selected to project climate changes to varying degrees, however it
was not stated what they had in common to increase confidence level. (Perhaps this implies it was a stratified random
study, which could have been stated to help understanding.) The Andes have a highly variable topography,
with extreme elevations contributing to widely contrasting climates. Not only did these models need to take
elevation into account, but the fact that both sides (east and west) of the
mountain ranges have different climates due to decreased atmospheric
circulation. It is surprising that only
19 samples were needed to involve such topological diversity with a high degree
of confidence.
Measuring
the extent of each biome was done by creating a unified biome map of the region
by combining existing vegetation maps.
The rationale was that each biome is best represented by the average
area covered by established measurements.
The purpose of measuring the biomes is stated as the need to
characterize climatic environments in relation to plant species diversity; as
each change in climate is predicted by a model, so is the amount of
biodiversity in each biome.
Results
from the study were clearly stated but lacked the necessary detail. It is projected that some biomes will win out
over others, but it is not stated where they are, only the biome types. It is also stated that precipitation changes
will be highly variable, and a good segment is spent on explaining it, but there
is no map to help illustrate it visually.
There is a page with many charts showing precipitation response to some
models, but it is difficult to read; it is dense with information and printed
sidewise, which isn’t the fault of the researchers. It’s just that a map would have been better
at conveying this information. Going by
data alone, some of it was clearly stated in the text, yet due to the sheer
size of the geographical area covered, much of it was left to the charts.
The
results were discussed in the context of the original hypothesis, which sought
to find projections for shifting biomes in different climate change
scenarios. However, due to many gaps in
the data, it left the reader with some degree of uncertainty. Nothing was actually tested in the study, and
no new knowledge was brought to the table; it was more like the processing of
metadata to find any trends in Andean biome movement. Gaps in the research include data on the
Southern Andes steppe environment (a large portion of the target population); a
lack of weather stations above the forest line; higher resolution climate data
to better represent the complex mountain topography; and an improved list of
the number of Andean plant species and their habitat.
To
the researchers’ credit, all these shortcomings were stated. And they advocated for more research to be
done to fill in these gaps. Once the
gaps are filled, there may be more specific evidence for shifting biodiversity
in the Andes Mountains, which can better assist conservation efforts across the
region.
Article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jbi.14389
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