Biodiversity in a changing climate
Climate change will have an impact on all aspects of life in South Australia. However, impacts that are social and economic in nature, pertaining directly to the wellbeing of our own species, tend to receive priority[1]. Thousands of Australia's native animals, birds and plants are facing extinction with nearly 3,000 unique natural habitats disappearing, taking more than 1,500 species with them[2]. Failure to acknowledge the value of our natural systems has left us with a legacy of environmental problems that will ultimately have a significant impact on our social and economic health.
It is not only our plants and animals that are at stake. Our way of life and livelihoods depend on healthy, functional ecosystems. We only have to look at the decline of the River Murray to see how much value an ecosystem adds to our economy. While we have learned a great deal from past mistakes, and are trying to change our ways, new challenges have presented themselves. Our climate is changing at an unprecedented rate and the fragmentation of habitats means species do not always have the ability to move to cooler climates.
Climate change has been recognised as the increasingly prominent direct driver of change within ecosystems. Currently in South Australia we do not have the systems in place to protect our species and ecosystems from further dramatic decline caused by climate change. This is of concern to CCSA as climate change has the potential to fundamentally re-shape our environmental, social, and economic landscapes, accelerating losses of biodiversity worldwide; changing productivity and distribution of habitat; causing sea level rise; and increasing the prevalence of pests and diseases.
What are the key biodiversity issues in South Australia?
Much of South Australia's economy is based on the use of biological resources and the need to maintain ecosystem services. Our primary production systems require biodiversity for pest control/management, soil conservation, enhanced productivity and stabilisation, pollination, salinity amelioration, and water purification.[3] This should motivate even the solely economically driven to take an interest in preserving South Australia's biodiversity.
South Australia's biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate. It may take millions of years for biodiversity to recover from the impacts of European settlement over the last 200 years. In South Australia key threats to biodiversity include pollution, invasive species, land clearance, clearance of remnant native vegetation, and subsequent fragmentation of flora and habitat for native fauna species.
Other key threats to South Australia's biodiversity in our state include:
- habitat fragmentation from development
- predation and competition for food, shelter and resources from introduced flora and fauna
- introduced disease
- collection of firewood from remnant vegetation
- altered fire regime
- inappropriate grazing/overgrazing
- inappropriate management activities including the destruction of riparian habitat for the sake of flood management or water extraction
- water pollution
- climate change effects including increasing oceanic temperatures and acidification.
[1] Conservation Council of South Australia and The Wilderness Society (2006) Comments on the Climate Change and
Greenhouse Emissions Reduction Bill, Submission to the Government of South Australia
[2] Australian Conservation Foundation (2002) Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment 2002: Our species in peril, Accessed online <http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=329>
[3] Department for Environment and Heritage (2007) No Species Loss Strategy: A Nature Conservation Strategy for
South Australia 2007-2017, Government of South Australia, Adelaide